Here you can find an overview of the 39 work packages being addressed in the current funding period of RISC (2024 – 2029).
For an overview of the 109 research projects that were implemented during the first funding period (2020 – 2024), please refer to our German website.
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11 results
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…
» View detailsA_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…
» View detailsA_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…
» View detailsA_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,…
» View detailsA_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…
» View detailsA_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…
» View detailsA_07 - Ecological Transformation and Anti-Democratic Crisis Mobilization
06/2024 – 05/2029
Work package A_07 examines positions and practices that delay, prevent, or reverse climate protection measures. Of particular interest are settings in which collective practices of “resistance” to transformative measures take shape. Political majorities opposed to climate policy emerge…
» View detailsA_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…
» View detailsA_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…
» View detailsA_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…
» View detailsA_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…
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