POLITICO · Political Concepts in the World
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2018-01-01 → 2023-12-31
- EU contribution
- €941,760
- Participants
- 24
- Scheme
- MSCA-COFUND
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Political Concepts in the World
The POLITICO PhD programme builds on the success of the interdisciplinary researcher training provided by the University of Aberdeen’s Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and the Rule of Law (CISRUL). The MSCA COFUND grant is enabling the expansion of the programme, improvement in the working conditions of recruited researchers, and the further development of multi-disciplinary and trans-sectoral partnerships, across the EU and beyond. The POLITICO programme builds on previous CISRUL efforts to understand better the political concepts that inspire and are invoked by political actors in the world today, which demonstrated the need to train a generation of researchers in multi-disciplinary and comparative approaches to the key political concepts through which we understand and act on the world around us. When the Arab Spring protestors called for ‘democracy’, for example, Western policy-makers focused largely on electoral reform, yet CISRUL researchers showed the protestors understood ‘democracy’ to include social justice, which has been largely ignored. Through POLITICO, 2 cohorts of 6 high-quality international Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) have the opportunity to propose and develop their own research projects around the theme of how political concepts are deployed in the world. POLITICO ESRs look to understand how political principles have been fostered historically, debated philosophically and in politics, fought over by social movements, codified in law, transmitted through education and the media, and lived out in everyday life. For example, competing notions of ‘the people’ were at stake in the referenda on the European constitution, arguably culminating in the Brexit vote, yet media writers, policy makers and scholars alike struggle to articulate what ‘the people’ means in different contexts. This is the focus of 2 of the POLITICO ESRs. Another ESR focuses on what ‘secularism’ means in different times and places, and especially whether secularism has a Christian bias - that is, whether the norms of appearance and behaviour considered secular are harder for non-Christians to meet. Beyond Europe, international development actors frequently call for building ‘civil society’ in authoritarian countries, and one POLITICO ESR is addressing how ‘civil society’ is understood in Vietnam, and with what consequences. In doing so, the POLITICO ESRs are taking the contextual study of political concepts beyond intellectual history and political theory, as well as beyond Western Europe and North America on which most scholarship focuses. By analysing principles that are cited by political actors and commentators across the world, the ESRs will achieve a better understanding of current political processes. They will also help to refresh the vocabulary of social and political theory, inform media and scholarly debate, and design better policy and movement strategies.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The POLITICO PhD programme will build on the success of the interdisciplinary training provided by the University of Aberdeen’s Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and the Rule of Law (CISRUL), which specializes in the global application of political ideas.2 cohorts of 6 high-quality international ESRs will propose and develop their own research projects around the theme of how political concepts are deployed in the world. POLITICO ESRs will ask how, and with what consequences, policy institutes, social movements and media commentators invoke such ideas such as ‘nation’, ‘democracy’ and ‘civil society’. POLITICO will reach beyond the West to locate political ideas in South, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, South and East Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.Selection will be via an open, transparent, merit-based, impartial, equitable and internationally advertised process, which will take special care to allow free choice of research projects. With POLITICO’s inter-disciplinary supervision and inter-sectoral training, the ESRs will build careers not only in state-of-the-art research, but also in incisive policy design, social movement leadership, and influential media commentary. In these careers, the researchers will apply their acute awareness of how political concepts vary across contexts and are invoked in political action.To further develop the ESRs’ inter-disciplinary expertise, and to provide opportunities to present research and engage in debate, CISRUL will host a full series of seminars, workshops and conferences, all co-designed with ESRs and on topics that cross-cut POLITICO themes.POLITICO ESRs will be supported by 23 internationally-recognised partner organisations, committed to providing specific training to researchers across the POLITICO project themes. 6 of the partners are leading policy institutes that will provide inter-sectoral training to include the writing of policy briefs, expected of all ESRs.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- THE UNIVERSITY COURT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN · AberdeenCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
- AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS BV · AMSTERDAMNetherlands
- Centrum Badan Historycznych Polskiej Akademii Nauk w Berlinie · Berlin 10587Germany
- ECOLE DES HAUTES ETUDES EN SCIENCES SOCIALES · ParisFrance
- EOTVOS LORAND TUDOMANYEGYETEM · BudapestHungary
- Education Scotland · LivongstonUnited Kingdom
- ISTITUTO PER GLI STUDI DI POLITICA INTERNAZIONALE · MilanoItaly
- JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY · New DelhiIndia
- LUNDS UNIVERSITET · LundSweden
- MARTIN-LUTHER-UNIVERSITAT HALLE-WITTENBERG · HalleGermany
- ODI GLOBAL · LondonUnited Kingdom
- ROYAL UNITED SERVICES INSTITUTE FOR DEFENCE AND SECURITY STUDIES · LondonUnited Kingdom
- STICHTING RADBOUD UNIVERSITEIT · NijmegenNetherlands
- TARTU ULIKOOL · TartuEstonia
- THE GOVERNING COUNCIL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO · TorontoCanada
- THE OPEN UNIVERSITY · Milton KeynesUnited Kingdom
- THE UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA · ManitobaCanada
- The Swedish Institute of International Affairs · LinköpingUnknown Region
- UNIVERSIDAD DE MALAGA · MALAGASpain
- UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI TRENTO · TrentoItaly
- UNIVERSITAET LEIPZIG · LeipzigGermany
- UNIVERSITAT JAUME I DE CASTELLON · Castellon De La PlanaSpain
- UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW · GlasgowUnited Kingdom
- UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA · OttawaCanada
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union