12 February 2016
As the LIPSE European research programme on social innovation and innovation in public service delivery draws to a close, CenSE is now focusing on its role in the newly launched SOLIDUS programme of the European Commission which is exploring the state of social solidarity and cohesion in post-recession Europe. Led at Edinburgh by Research Fellow Elisabetta Mocca, the programme will explore how far social movements spawned to deal with the consequences of the recession have enabled or hindered social solidarity and cohesion within the European member states. Fourteen universities from across Europe are cooperating on this programme.
SOLIDUS falls within the broader objectives of the Horizon 2020 “Europe in a changing world: inclusive, innovative and reflective societies” work programme, more specifically under the call “Overcoming the Crisis: New Ideas, Strategies and Governance Structures for Europe”. The innovative character of this proposal is that it explores conceptually and empirically current and future expressions of European solidarity from an inter-disciplinary approach that integrates views from Sociology, Psychology, Economic Geography, Economy, Philosophy and Public Management.
The project will make use of a range of research data and projects and integrate them to help reach an understanding of the drivers and barriers to social integration across Europe. The added value of this comparative approach is that cross-national and cross-sectorial learning is facilitated, enabling the EU member states, and especially their policymakers and academics, to learn from one another. Moreover, it will help policymakers at the European level to develop policies and instruments that recognize the potential of solidarity to achieve societal goals through available mechanisms of policy innovation while improving the evidence-based character of their policies. To date, such systematic, interdisciplinary and comparative research into solidarity is unique at European level.