Project description
How citizens stay resilient when democracy is under pressure
Today’s democratic societies face mounting pressure. Climate change, economic instability, and the spread of disinformation are testing institutions, fuelling distrust, disengagement, and rising intolerance. These forces can quietly erode democracy from within. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the RESDEM project explores how citizens adapt to such disruptions, focusing on how people stay engaged when democracy is under strain. Specifically, RESDEM takes a citizen-centred approach to examine shifts in public attention, trust, and participation. Ethnographic studies of wind turbine projects in Norway and Germany provide real-world insight into how global pressures play out locally. By tracing everyday coping strategies, RESDEM aims to reveal what sustains democracy, and how to strengthen it.
Objective
Democratic societies face a critical challenge: Addressing combined global pressures like climate change, economic instability, and disinformation while preserving democratic norms. As governments work to tackle these issues, the burden of change often disrupts citizens’ lives, leading to democratic erosion reflected in declining institutional trust, rising news avoidance, and growing intolerance. RESDEM addresses a key, yet poorly understood aspect of democracies’ ability to cope with global stressors: citizens’ democratic resilience. The project aims to develop a theoretical framework for understanding this resilience through the lens of public connection, offering a novel approach to resolving the tension between macro-level challenges and micro-level coping processes. Adopting a citizen-centric, practice approach, RESDEM examines democratic resilience as patterned adjustments in individuals’ engagement with public life when faced with disruptions. These manifest in shifting dynamics of attention to public affairs, information-seeking, political discussion, institutional trust, and political participation. RESDEM will conduct a comparative ethnographic study of onshore wind turbine projects in Norway and Germany, representing global issues materializing locally, often sparking grassroots mobilization that can challenge democratic norms. Norway and Germany, with strong institutions and high civic engagement, serve as “most likely” cases for democratic resilience. RESDEM aims to: 1) Identify key components of citizens’ democratic resilience, 2) Determine the interaction between individual resilience and local communication infrastructure, and 3) Identify factors fostering resilience through comparative analysis. The University of Bergen provides an ideal environment for this research, offering expertise in media studies, sustainable transformation and democratic theory.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences political sciences government systems democracy
- social sciences political sciences political policies civil society
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
5020 Bergen
Norway
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.