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…

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_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…

C_07 - Social Cohesion in the Europe-Wide Energy Transition

By examining public participation procedures as institutionalized options of voice , this work package (WP) makes an important contribution to RISC’s overarching research question concerning social cohesion in democracies. The focus lies on social cohesion in cross-border regions in the…

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…

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_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…

D_06 - Transformation of the Societal Order of Deliberation

06/2024 – 05/2029

The aim of this work package (WP) is to contribute theoretical and conceptual groundwork that helps address the guiding questions of Research Area D concerning the foundations and conditions of societal debates over knowledge, values, and identities. Using the concept of a “deliberative…

D_02 - Transnational Ideological Transfer of the Populist and Extreme Right

06/2024 – 05/2029

This work package (WP) seeks to contribute to an understanding of the worldviews, images of others, and identity-based self-interpretations of the populist and extreme right. It undertakes a transnational analysis of the circulation of values, ideologies, and policies that are grounded in…

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…

D_04 - Youth as a Generation of Crisis? Socialization in Conflict and Transformation

06/2024-05/2029

This work package (WP) develops both a foundational and a knowledge-transfer-oriented profile for the relationship between youth and social cohesion. Within Priority Area 2, it identifies key socialization dynamics in the youth-cultural production and reproduction of social cohesion. It…