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Refiguring the Common and the Political

Project description

DEENESFRITPL

Renewing political thought for inclusive futures

In today’s world, climate change, economic crises and migration are looming large, alongside the malaise of liberal democracies. There is a growing interest in reconfiguring communities. Unfortunately, the current political climate is not conducive to establishing bonds of commonality across differences or enabling action in common. In this context, the HETEROPOLITICS project, funded by the European Research Council, aims to establish bonds of commonality across differences and enable action in common without enacting the closures of ‘organic’ community or the violence of transformative politics. It will combine contemporary political theory with empirical research into alternative and incipient practices of community building and self-governance in areas like education, social economy, art, civic engagement, and municipal politics.

Objective

Heteropolitics is a project in contemporary political theory which purports to contribute to the renewal of political thought on the ‘common’ (communities and the commons) and the political in tandem. The common implies a variable interaction between differences which communicate and collaborate in and through their differences, converging partially on practices and particular pursuits. The political pertains to processes through which plural communities manage themselves in ways which enable mutual challenges, deliberation, and creative agency.

Since the dawn of the 21st century, a growing interest in rethinking and reconfiguring community has spread among theorists, citizens and social movements (see e.g. Esposito 2013; Dardot & Laval 2014; Amin & Roberts 2008). This has been triggered by a complex tangle of social, economic and political conditions. Climate change, economic crises, globalization, increasing migration flows and the malaise of liberal democracies loom large among them.

These issues are essentially political. Rethinking and refiguring communities goes hand in hand thus with rethinking and reinventing politics. Hence ‘hetero-politics’, the quest for another politics, which can establish bonds of commonality across differences and can enable action in common without re-enacting the closures of ‘organic’ community or the violence of transformative politics in the past.

Heteropolitics will seek to break new ground by combining an extended re-elaboration of contemporary political theory with a more empirically grounded research into alternative and incipient practices of community building and self-governance in: education; the social economy; art; new modes of civic engagement by young people; new platforms of citizens’ participation in municipal politics; network communities, and other social fields (Relevant cases include Sardex, a community currency in Sardinia; Barcelona en Comú, a citizens’ platform governing the city of Barcelona, etc.)

Fields of science

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Call for proposal

ERC-2016-COG

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Funding Scheme

ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant

Host institution

ARISTOTELIO PANEPISTIMIO THESSALONIKIS
Net EU contribution
€ 629 749,75
Address
KEDEA BUILDING, TRITIS SEPTEMVRIOU, ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY CAMPUS
546 36 THESSALONIKI
Greece

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Region
Βόρεια Ελλάδα Κεντρική Μακεδονία Θεσσαλονίκη
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 629 749,75

Beneficiaries (5)

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Last update: 22 August 2022

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Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/724692

European Union, 2024