A_01 - Democratic Cohesion Between Inclusion and Exclusion: Theoretical Foundations, Legal Constitution, and Political Dynamics

06/2024 – 05/2029

A distinctive feature of RISC’s research program is its differentiation between a general, non-normatively defined concept of cohesion and more specific conceptions. This allows for a more precise theoretical and empirical analysis of such conceptions, particularly with regard to their…

A_02 - Trust in Democracy, Populism, and Voting Behavior in Times of Transformation

06/2024-05/2029

The aim of this work package (WP) is to determine, through analytical and empirical methods, the effects of social cohesion on trust in the institutions of a pluralistic and liberal democracy under conditions of crisis. Of particular interest is the question of how the effects of…

A_03 - Polarization and Political Legitimacy

06/2024 – 05/2029

By addressing the relationship between polarization and political legitimacy, this work package (WP) subjects the widespread thesis that tendencies toward polarization inevitably endanger the legitimacy of political institutions to critical scrutiny. Its aim is to specify more precisely…

A_04 - Policies of Social Cohesion in Africa: Entangled Governance in Post-Trauma Societies and the Role of International Organizations

06/2024 – 05/2029

As part of the focus area on cohesion policies and the conditions of political legitimacy, this work package (WP) empirically examines top-down and bottom-up governance strategies and practices for producing social cohesion in Ethiopia, Rwanda, and South Africa. In all three countries,…

A_05 - Social Cohesion in China – Traditions and New Challenges

The Communist Party of China (CPC) claims that one of its greatest achievements lies in securing social cohesion within the Chinese nation of 1.4 billion people. Not infrequently, the concept of democracy is invoked in the same breath, even though, from an external perspective and…

A_06 - Local Protests and Cohesion in a European Comparison

06/2024 – 05/2029

Protests are a form of political participation that has increasingly become part of everyday political life in Western democratic societies. They can function both as expressions of voice — and thus as signs of lived democracy—and as exit -reactions in the sense of a withdrawal from…

A_07 - Ecological Transformation and Anti-Democratic Crisis Mobilization

06/2024 – 05/2029

In this work package (WP), a comparative analysis is conducted of how the transformation of production systems, the expansion of renewable energy, and the regulation of ways of living and consumption are used for anti-democratic protest mobilization against climate policy and…

A_08 - Democratic Participation in the World of Work Between Compromise and Conflict

06/2024 – 05/2029

The work package (WP), in cooperation with and complementary to A_06 and A_07, examines the contribution of different forms of civil society participation between voice, exit, and loyalty to democratic cohesion. In doing so, it focuses on collective labor relations as a central pillar of…

A_09 - Politicized Gender Issues Between Voting Behavior and Online Communication

06/2024 – 05/2029

The work package (WP) investigates processes of politicization and polarization surrounding gender issues on three levels: individual attitudes, social media discourses, and party positions. It examines whether divergent political attitudes give rise to societal conflicts and polarization…

A_10 - Social Cohesion in Times of War: The Effects of Military Conflicts on Politicization and Polarization

Research Area A analyzes the relationship between politics and social cohesion, with a particular emphasis on the conflictual dimension of political negotiations. Violent conflicts constitute a particularly relevant field in this regard, as they directly affect people’s sense of security…

A_11 - Polarization Dynamics on Social Media

06/2024 – 05/2029

This work package (WP) examines current dynamics of politicization and polarization on social media, their emergence, and their effects. It is based on the observation that digital media in particular function as opportunity structures for politically extreme actors and, due to their…

B_01 - Milieu Conflicts and Social Cohesion

06/2024 – 05/2029

Within the context of the first research focus of Research Area B, this work package (WP) examines the effects of socioeconomic and cultural divisions on social cohesion using the concept of social milieus. It subjects the hypothesis of a “drifting apart of society” to a systematic…

B_02 - The Social Integration Paradox: Gender-Specific Forms of Social Integration

This work package (WP) addresses core questions of the research focus “Effects of Status and Distributional Orders on Social Cohesion,” namely (1) social cohesion among unequal groups as reproduced by men and women in household and employment contexts, and (2) the tension between…

B_03 - Family Inequalities and the Evaluation of Social Justice

This work package (WP) addresses evaluations of fundamental status and distributional orders—such as the principles of equality, need, merit, and entitlement—and thereby contributes to the first guiding question of Research Area B concerning cohesion among unequal groups, for which the…

B_05 - Experiences of Marginalization and Expectations of Social Cohesion: Sociospatial Perspectives

This work package (WP) examines the cohesion-threatening and cohesion-generating effects of social marginalization, with a particular focus on the tension between political invocations of social cohesion and subjective experiences of economic disadvantage and cultural misrecognition.…

B_06 - Collective Responses to Socioeconomic Status Threat

This work package (WP) is situated within Research Focus 2 of Research Area B and aims to investigate responses to socioeconomic status threats at the level of social groups. It seeks to develop a deeper understanding of which social groups individuals turn to in response to perceived…

B_07 - Solidarity Practices in Processes of Societal Transformation

While responses to (actual or perceived) marginalization are often characterized by withdrawal or regressive revolt (exit), this work package (WP), situated within Research Focus 2 of Research Area B, centers on solidarity practices within and alongside marginalized milieus. The core…

B_08 - Segmentation of Social Milieus and Their Mutual Evaluation

This work package (WP) is situated within Research Focus 3 and aims to expand the existing data from the project BRE_F_03 through an additional mixed-methods study with a particular focus on marginalized groups and migrants. Within the research area and its focus, the WP makes a…

B_09 - Intergroup Conflicts and Symbolic Boundary-Drawing Practices in Digital Social Networks

This work package (WP) builds on research on so-called “perceived polarization” and on the implicit assumption that diagnoses of societal division must always be understood as mediated by communication and perception. Unlike survey-based studies and group discussions on perceived…

B_10 - Qualitative Panel: Milieu-Specific Practices of Endangering and Safeguarding Social Cohesion

06/2024 – 05/2029

This work package (WP) has been conducted since June 2020 in close cooperation between the sections Bremen and Göttingen and is being continued in the second funding phase of RISC with the inclusion of the Hamburg section. Building on international research on political polarization and…

C_01 - Social Cohesion as a Local Question of Power

06/2024 – 05/2029

The aim of this work package (WP) is to examine social cohesion as an expression of local power relations. These power relations manifest themselves in the form and design of public goods and infrastructures and are shaped in particular by the capacity of individual local actors to assert…

C_02 - Social Infrastructures in the Neighborhood Nexus: Perceptions and Practices of Social Cohesion in Urban Space

06/2024 - 05/2029

This work package (WP) examines how social infrastructures influence social cohesion in neighborhoods and how differing state and municipal frameworks for infrastructure provision affect cohesion at the local level. Through an international comparison between the city of Hanover and the…

C_03 - Cooperative Reconfigurations of Infrastructure as a Societal and Legal Development

06/2024 – 05/2029

Against the backdrop of the infrastructural challenges identified in Research Area C, this work package (WP), situated within Research Focus 2, examines practices of infrastructure self-organization (voice) and investigates citizens’ willingness to participate in the improvement or even…

C_05 - Planning for Climate-Neutral Cities as a Factor of Social Cohesion

This work package (WP) addresses the pressing societal challenge of planning climate-neutral cities and examines the role that social cohesion plays in urban development planning, as well as the effects that the implementation of such plans has on social cohesion. In doing so, the WP also…

C_06 - Distribution and Perception of Environmental Burdens and Natural Resources and Their Significance for Social Cohesion

Situated within Research Focus 3 on social cohesion in socio-ecological transformation, this work package (WP) examines the influence of natural resources and environmental burdens on social cohesion, with particular attention to socio-ecological justice. Central to the analysis are…