INTERFACED - Interfaces for Democratic Participation: Deliberation, Mobilization and Contestation Since the Onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic

H2020

2025 - 2028 

Project leader (on behalf on CSS): Márton Gerő

Project Participants: Szabina Kerényi, Gabriella Szabó, Alida Szalai, Balázs Bekker 

 

Amidst the rise in protest, democratic and scientific mistrust, as well as growing societal divisions and inequalities heightened by the Covid-19 pandemic, INTERFACED investigates the diverse forms of political participation that have arisen subsequently. We approach the period since the onset of the pandemic as an opportunity to contribute to the destination Innovative Research on Democracy and Governance of the Work Programme, to its cardinal goal to reinvigorate democratic governance and empower active and inclusive citizenship. We do so by distinguishing participation interfaces between citizens and representative institutions to then investigate their capacity to include citizens within decision-making and governance. INTERFACED pursues seven specific objectives that move the analysis of these interfaces beyond the state-of-the-art with the aim to enhance relations between citizens and governments. The objectives will be attained with a comprehensive methodological apparatus—combining large-scale surveys and experiments with computational, ethnographic, textual and comparative qualitative methods. Together with the topical selection of a diverse set of eight European countries and Tunisia—spanning multiple forms of opposition, including opposition to authoritarianism—INTERFACED will thereby offer a systematic and inclusive basis from which to produce new and innovative research findings, and from which to scaffold policy recommendations to maximize the mobilization and minimize the demobilization of the least engaged and most disadvantaged social groups

The project is led by the City University of London and started on the 1st of January, 2025. Besides the HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences, the Consortia consists of the EDGERYDERS from Estonia, the Universidad Carlos III.  de Madrid from Spain, the Babes-Bolyai University from Romania, the Universita Degli Stud di Parma from Italy, the Kobenhavns Universitet from Dnmark, thea Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt from Germany, the Dublin City University from Ireland,  the European Citizen Action Service Belgiumból and the La Fondation Jasmin Pour La Recherche Et La Com from Tunisia.