Oggetto: PARTNER SEARCH SSH-EU-SMCP-3  
Richiesta di una accademia polacca di studi economici e sociali, interessata ad una partnership per un progetto inserito nella tematica SSH: SSH-2007-5.1.1. Democratic "ownership" and partecipation.

Contatto: maracchia@apre.it
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------- PARTNER SEARCH SSH-EU-SMCP-3 --------
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<Reference n.: SSH-EU-SMCP-3>
<Deadline: 15/11/2007>
<Programme: >
<Project Title: Participation and Exclusion: In Search of the
Patterns of Social, Political, and Legal Attitudes in the EU Member
States>
<Financial Scheme: >
<Description: Our project has an interdisciplinary character. It is
aimed at scholars from the fields of social, political, and legal
thought as well as opinion poll institutions, government and
non-government organizations which deal with the implementation of the
findings concerning participation and exclusion.
Our project is a comparative one. It implies the analyses of the data
collected in various social groups in different political settings.
Particularly important are the comparisons between the old and new EU
member states. Given the wide dimension of our project two
coordinators are necessary - one for the old member states and one for
the new ones. We are ready to assume the responsibilities of the
coordinator for the new member states but we do expect one of our
partners to coordinate the other part of the project.
The aim of the project is to analyze social, political, and legal
attitudes of EU politicians, civil servants, civil society members,
and ordinary citizens. These attitudes take a behavioral dimension.
They are to be found in social discourse which will constitute the
hard core of our research interest. It is in this discourse that two
alternative sets of attitudes are to be discovered. First, there are
attitudes shaping what we call, following Karl Popper, open society
which implies dialogue, negotiations, and compromise. As such, they
advance participation in democratically structured civil society.
Second, there are attitudes responsible for close society which
includes nationalism, religious fundamentalism, and homophobia. As
such, they lead to exclusion or, indeed, self-exclusion from
democratically structured civil society. These two kinds of attitudes
also take a declarative dimension which should confirm, in form of
opinion polls, the findings of our research on social discourse.
Our project implies a close cooperation with government and
non-government organizations at regional, national, and European
level. We will organize conferences, prepare publications, launch
internet campaigns concerning the problems of civic participation and
the challenges of social exclusion. This should lead to formulating
legislative postulates and political solutions addressed to both
parliamentarians and local authorities and encouraging civil society
institutions (including trade unions, business associations, and
minority organizations) to act their behalf.

<Organisation Type: Università>
<Partner Sought: We call for research institutions, in the old as
well as new EU member states, ready to collaborate in the Seventh
Framework Programme in search of the reasons for civic participation
and social exclusion. We assume that these reasons contain a whole
range of ideological motivations for acceptance or rejection of
democratic institutions. >