Project acronym GRASSROOTSMOBILISE
Project Directions in Religious Pluralism in Europe: Examining Grassroots Mobilisations in Europe in the Shadow of European Court of Human Rights Religious Freedom Jurisprudence
Researcher (PI) Efterpe Fokas
Host Institution (HI) Elliniko Idryma Evropaikis kai Exoterikis Politikis (HELLENIC FOUNDATION FOR EUROPEAN AND FOREIGN POLICY)
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2013-StG
Summary The European public square has, in the last twenty years and increasingly so, been inundated with controversies around the place of religion in the public sphere. Issues such as freedom of religious expression, freedom of speech v. blasphemy, and the public display of religious symbols loom large in the workplace, in schools, in media coverage etc., at the local, national, and supranational level. The presence of Islam has been a catalyst for many debates on religion in Europe, but these have now grown to encompass much broader assumptions about the nature of religious communities, their relationship to state institutions, and the place of minority religious communities in society. Against this backdrop the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) adds its own voice and significantly influences the terms of the debates. This project examines the domestic impact of the ECtHR religion case law: it explores the mobilisation of local and national level actors in the wake of a number of high-profile ECtHR religious freedom cases in order to determine the nature and extent of European juridical influence on religious pluralism. In light of scholarly debates questioning the direct effects of courts, the project probes developments that take place ‘in the shadow’ of the Court. It engages especially with the extent to which court decisions define the ‘political opportunity structures’ and the discursive frameworks within which citizens act. What is the aftermath of the Court’s religion jurisprudence in terms of its applications at the grassroots level? The question is important because ECtHR case law will shape, to a large extent, both local and national level case law and – less conspicuously but no less importantly – grassroots developments in the promotion of or resistance to religious pluralism. Both the latter will, in turn, influence the future of the ECtHR caseload. The project will thus impart rare insight into directions being taken in religious pluralism in Europe.
Summary
The European public square has, in the last twenty years and increasingly so, been inundated with controversies around the place of religion in the public sphere. Issues such as freedom of religious expression, freedom of speech v. blasphemy, and the public display of religious symbols loom large in the workplace, in schools, in media coverage etc., at the local, national, and supranational level. The presence of Islam has been a catalyst for many debates on religion in Europe, but these have now grown to encompass much broader assumptions about the nature of religious communities, their relationship to state institutions, and the place of minority religious communities in society. Against this backdrop the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) adds its own voice and significantly influences the terms of the debates. This project examines the domestic impact of the ECtHR religion case law: it explores the mobilisation of local and national level actors in the wake of a number of high-profile ECtHR religious freedom cases in order to determine the nature and extent of European juridical influence on religious pluralism. In light of scholarly debates questioning the direct effects of courts, the project probes developments that take place ‘in the shadow’ of the Court. It engages especially with the extent to which court decisions define the ‘political opportunity structures’ and the discursive frameworks within which citizens act. What is the aftermath of the Court’s religion jurisprudence in terms of its applications at the grassroots level? The question is important because ECtHR case law will shape, to a large extent, both local and national level case law and – less conspicuously but no less importantly – grassroots developments in the promotion of or resistance to religious pluralism. Both the latter will, in turn, influence the future of the ECtHR caseload. The project will thus impart rare insight into directions being taken in religious pluralism in Europe.
Max ERC Funding
1 184 568 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-01-01, End date: 2018-12-31
Project acronym OPN-IMMUNOREGULATION
Project Immune mechanisms of osteopontin-mediated protection in allergic airway disease
Researcher (PI) Vasiliki Panoutsakopoulou
Host Institution (HI) IDRYMA IATROVIOLOGIKON EREUNON AKADEMIAS ATHINON
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS6, ERC-2009-StG
Summary In allergic asthma, an important health problem, disease is driven by allergen-specific Th2 immune responses. Differentiation of Th2 cells depends on their early interactions with antigen presenting cells, such as dendritic cells (DCs), and cytokines are crucial for this process. Osteopontin (Opn) was originally identified as an important cytokine for Th1 immunity and autoimmunity. Our group recently demonstrated that Opn is highly expressed in the lungs of asthmatic patients and of mice with Th2-mediated allergic airway inflammation. Our work revealed anti-allergic effects of Opn on airway disease during secondary pulmonary antigenic challenge mediated by regulation of DC subsets. In addition, intranasal administration of recombinant Opn during pulmonary exposure to the allergen protected mice from allergic airway disease suppressing all features of disease, recruitment of Th2 cells and allergen-specific Th2 responses. Our previous experiments, as well as preliminary studies presented in this proposal, point to an important novel immunoregulatory role for Opn in the Th2 setting. However, most aspects of the Opn-mediated immune mechanism of protection remain unclear. With this proposal, we aim at elucidating the immunoregulatory/protective mechanisms of Opn utilizing immunologic, molecular and genomic approaches as well as in vivo mouse models of allergic airway inflammation. We propose to investigate the mechanisms mediating Opn-effects on: (1) DC subsets and Treg cells that confer protection during pulmonary allergen challenge (2) recruitment and function of allergen-specific Th2 (generated during sensitization) as well as of newly-activated Th effector cells and their interactions during pulmonary allergen challenge and (3) antigenic tolerance induction in the Th2 setting. The studies proposed here will provide new insight into the biology of Opn-dependent regulation of DC subsets, Th2 responses and DC-T cell interactions opening new important questions in im
Summary
In allergic asthma, an important health problem, disease is driven by allergen-specific Th2 immune responses. Differentiation of Th2 cells depends on their early interactions with antigen presenting cells, such as dendritic cells (DCs), and cytokines are crucial for this process. Osteopontin (Opn) was originally identified as an important cytokine for Th1 immunity and autoimmunity. Our group recently demonstrated that Opn is highly expressed in the lungs of asthmatic patients and of mice with Th2-mediated allergic airway inflammation. Our work revealed anti-allergic effects of Opn on airway disease during secondary pulmonary antigenic challenge mediated by regulation of DC subsets. In addition, intranasal administration of recombinant Opn during pulmonary exposure to the allergen protected mice from allergic airway disease suppressing all features of disease, recruitment of Th2 cells and allergen-specific Th2 responses. Our previous experiments, as well as preliminary studies presented in this proposal, point to an important novel immunoregulatory role for Opn in the Th2 setting. However, most aspects of the Opn-mediated immune mechanism of protection remain unclear. With this proposal, we aim at elucidating the immunoregulatory/protective mechanisms of Opn utilizing immunologic, molecular and genomic approaches as well as in vivo mouse models of allergic airway inflammation. We propose to investigate the mechanisms mediating Opn-effects on: (1) DC subsets and Treg cells that confer protection during pulmonary allergen challenge (2) recruitment and function of allergen-specific Th2 (generated during sensitization) as well as of newly-activated Th effector cells and their interactions during pulmonary allergen challenge and (3) antigenic tolerance induction in the Th2 setting. The studies proposed here will provide new insight into the biology of Opn-dependent regulation of DC subsets, Th2 responses and DC-T cell interactions opening new important questions in im
Max ERC Funding
1 511 200 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-12-01, End date: 2015-11-30
Project acronym SeaLiT
Project Seafaring Lives in Transition. Mediterranean Maritime Labour and Shipping during Globalization, 1850s-1920s.
Researcher (PI) Apostolos Delis
Host Institution (HI) IDRYMA TECHNOLOGIAS KAI EREVNAS
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH6, ERC-2016-STG
Summary SeaLiT explores the transition from sail to steam navigation and its effects on seafaring populations in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea between the 1850s and the 1920s. In the core of the project lie the effects of technological innovation on seafaring people and maritime communities, whose lives were drastically altered by the advent of steam. The project addresses the changes through the actors, seafarers, shipowners and their families, focusing on the adjustment of seafaring lives to a novel socio-economic reality. It investigates the maritime labour market, the evolving relations among shipowner, captain, crew and their local societies, life on board and ashore, as well as the development of new business strategies, trade routes and navigation patterns.
Maritime labour and shipping remains an understudied case of the transition from the premodern working environment of the sailing ship to that of the steamer, in a period of rapid technological improvements, economic growth and market integration. Therefore, the project will address a major gap in maritime historiography: on the one hand, the transition from sail to steam, and on the other, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, “the extended Mediterranean” according to F. Braudel.
The project examines in a comparative approach seven maritime regions: the Ionian, Aegean, Tyrrhenian, Adriatic and Black Seas, Spain and southern France. The research team composed of the PI, three postdoctoral fellows, four senior researchers and four Ph.D. candidates from Greece, Italy, Spain, France and Ukraine will study unpublished sources: ship logbooks, crew lists, business records, and private correspondence. They will produce a collective volume, several articles, a final synthesis by the PI, four Ph.D. dissertations, three workshops, one international conference and a website with an online open access database, an archival and bibliographical corpus and reconstruction of ship voyages on a web G.I.S. application.
Summary
SeaLiT explores the transition from sail to steam navigation and its effects on seafaring populations in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea between the 1850s and the 1920s. In the core of the project lie the effects of technological innovation on seafaring people and maritime communities, whose lives were drastically altered by the advent of steam. The project addresses the changes through the actors, seafarers, shipowners and their families, focusing on the adjustment of seafaring lives to a novel socio-economic reality. It investigates the maritime labour market, the evolving relations among shipowner, captain, crew and their local societies, life on board and ashore, as well as the development of new business strategies, trade routes and navigation patterns.
Maritime labour and shipping remains an understudied case of the transition from the premodern working environment of the sailing ship to that of the steamer, in a period of rapid technological improvements, economic growth and market integration. Therefore, the project will address a major gap in maritime historiography: on the one hand, the transition from sail to steam, and on the other, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, “the extended Mediterranean” according to F. Braudel.
The project examines in a comparative approach seven maritime regions: the Ionian, Aegean, Tyrrhenian, Adriatic and Black Seas, Spain and southern France. The research team composed of the PI, three postdoctoral fellows, four senior researchers and four Ph.D. candidates from Greece, Italy, Spain, France and Ukraine will study unpublished sources: ship logbooks, crew lists, business records, and private correspondence. They will produce a collective volume, several articles, a final synthesis by the PI, four Ph.D. dissertations, three workshops, one international conference and a website with an online open access database, an archival and bibliographical corpus and reconstruction of ship voyages on a web G.I.S. application.
Max ERC Funding
1 372 350 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-02-01, End date: 2022-01-31
