Project acronym BIOUNCERTAINTY
Project Deep uncertainties in bioethics: genetic research, preventive medicine, reproductive decisions
Researcher (PI) Tomasz ZURADZKI
Host Institution (HI) UNIWERSYTET JAGIELLONSKI
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Uncertainty is everywhere, as the saying goes, but rarely considered in ethical reflections. This project aims to reinterpret ethical discussions on current advances in biomedicine: instead of understanding bioethical positions as extensions of classical normative views in ethics (consequentialism, deontologism, contractualism etc.), my project interprets them more accurately as involving various normative approaches to decision making under uncertainty. The following hard cases in bioethics provide the motivation for research:
1) Regulating scientific research under uncertainty about the ontological/moral status (e.g. parthenogenetic stem cells derived from human parthenotes) in the context of meta-reasoning under normative uncertainty.
2) The value of preventive medicine in healthcare (e.g. vaccinations) in the context of decision-making under metaphysical indeterminacy.
3) Population or reproductive decisions (e.g. preimplantation genetic diagnosis) in the context of valuing mere existence.
The main drive behind this project is the rapid progress in biomedical research combined with new kinds of uncertainties. These new and “deep” uncertainties trigger specific forms of emotions and cognitions that influence normative judgments and decisions. The main research questions that will be addressed by conceptual analysis, new psychological experiments, and case studies are the following: how do the heuristics and biases (H&B) documented by behavioral scientists influence the formation of normative judgments in bioethical contexts; how to demarcate between distorted and undistorted value judgments; to what extent is it permissible for individuals or policy makers to yield to H&B. The hypothesis is that many existing bioethical rules, regulations, practices seem to have emerged from unreliable reactions, rather than by means of deliberation on the possible justifications for alternative ways to decide about them under several layers and types of uncertainty.
Summary
Uncertainty is everywhere, as the saying goes, but rarely considered in ethical reflections. This project aims to reinterpret ethical discussions on current advances in biomedicine: instead of understanding bioethical positions as extensions of classical normative views in ethics (consequentialism, deontologism, contractualism etc.), my project interprets them more accurately as involving various normative approaches to decision making under uncertainty. The following hard cases in bioethics provide the motivation for research:
1) Regulating scientific research under uncertainty about the ontological/moral status (e.g. parthenogenetic stem cells derived from human parthenotes) in the context of meta-reasoning under normative uncertainty.
2) The value of preventive medicine in healthcare (e.g. vaccinations) in the context of decision-making under metaphysical indeterminacy.
3) Population or reproductive decisions (e.g. preimplantation genetic diagnosis) in the context of valuing mere existence.
The main drive behind this project is the rapid progress in biomedical research combined with new kinds of uncertainties. These new and “deep” uncertainties trigger specific forms of emotions and cognitions that influence normative judgments and decisions. The main research questions that will be addressed by conceptual analysis, new psychological experiments, and case studies are the following: how do the heuristics and biases (H&B) documented by behavioral scientists influence the formation of normative judgments in bioethical contexts; how to demarcate between distorted and undistorted value judgments; to what extent is it permissible for individuals or policy makers to yield to H&B. The hypothesis is that many existing bioethical rules, regulations, practices seem to have emerged from unreliable reactions, rather than by means of deliberation on the possible justifications for alternative ways to decide about them under several layers and types of uncertainty.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 625 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-02-01, End date: 2024-01-31
Project acronym BROKEX
Project Brokering China’s Extraversion: An Ethnographic Analysis of Transnational Arbitration
Researcher (PI) Heidi Østbø HAUGEN
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITETET I OSLO
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Chinese global engagements are deepening across sectors and geographic regions. The objective of BROKEX is to fill specific gaps in knowledge about how China’s extraversion advances. The project takes an original approach by examining brokers who mediate in transnational fields. It opens the “black box” of China’s global integration by moving beyond descriptions of input and output characteristics to elucidate underlying dynamics. The objective will be achieved in two phases. First, the PI and two postdoctoral researchers will carry out ethnographic case studies in the Pearl River Delta, South China, that yield complementary information on the common challenge of brokering across geographic scales: * Connecting low-cost Chinese manufacturing with African markets; * Integrating Chinese academic research with global scientific communities; * Transnational architecture production. The diverse cases offer insights into the mechanisms of brokerage across distinctive sectors. In the second step, we build on the empirical findings and literature to develop brokerage theory. Social scientific research on brokerage commonly uses the morphology of social networks as its starting point, and focuses on how actors positioned at the intersection between groups operate. BROKEX adopts an innovative approach by examining how actors strategically seek to shape network morphologies in order to bridge gaps between groups. By directing theoretical attention towards relationship formation that precedes acts of brokerage, this line of inquiry advances understandings of how and why brokered connections emerge. Ethnographic case studies combined with critical theorization will generate new knowledge about the processes beneath the “rise of China” ─ one of the most consequential socioeconomic developments of our times.
Summary
Chinese global engagements are deepening across sectors and geographic regions. The objective of BROKEX is to fill specific gaps in knowledge about how China’s extraversion advances. The project takes an original approach by examining brokers who mediate in transnational fields. It opens the “black box” of China’s global integration by moving beyond descriptions of input and output characteristics to elucidate underlying dynamics. The objective will be achieved in two phases. First, the PI and two postdoctoral researchers will carry out ethnographic case studies in the Pearl River Delta, South China, that yield complementary information on the common challenge of brokering across geographic scales: * Connecting low-cost Chinese manufacturing with African markets; * Integrating Chinese academic research with global scientific communities; * Transnational architecture production. The diverse cases offer insights into the mechanisms of brokerage across distinctive sectors. In the second step, we build on the empirical findings and literature to develop brokerage theory. Social scientific research on brokerage commonly uses the morphology of social networks as its starting point, and focuses on how actors positioned at the intersection between groups operate. BROKEX adopts an innovative approach by examining how actors strategically seek to shape network morphologies in order to bridge gaps between groups. By directing theoretical attention towards relationship formation that precedes acts of brokerage, this line of inquiry advances understandings of how and why brokered connections emerge. Ethnographic case studies combined with critical theorization will generate new knowledge about the processes beneath the “rise of China” ─ one of the most consequential socioeconomic developments of our times.
Max ERC Funding
1 490 773 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-01-01, End date: 2023-12-31
Project acronym CALENDARS
Project Co-production of seasonal representations for adaptive institutions
Researcher (PI) Scott Ronald BREMER
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITETET I BERGEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Climate change may be undermining the stock of seasonal representations that society draws on to understand and live according to the weather. The CALENDARS project studies how modern society represents seasons, and how these representations shape institutions and help people live with seasonal change. The project opens an important emerging field in climate adaptation research by examining the representations of ‘normal’ seasons underlying key institutions, assesses their quality for successful adaptation to rapid climate change, and analyses facilitators and barriers to adopting representations more flexibly to new climates. It contributes a novel perspective on how to transform our institutions – from schools to farmer cooperatives – from the foundational culture and representations up, to better fit the changing seasonal cycles we are experiencing.
CALENDARS empirically explores the relationship between different institutions’ ideas of seasons and their successful adaptation through an in-depth comparative study of a set of institutions in two local communities, in Norway and New Zealand. It is steered by an overall objective to: ‘Advance knowledge and understanding of how seasonal representations shape and are shaped by institutions, and critically appraise the quality of these representations for contributing to successful adaptation to seasonal change’.
Conceptually, CALENDARS looks at representations as continuously ‘co-produced’ at the boundary of nature and society, and society and institutions. It tests a novel reconceptualisation of co-production as a prism; with each of the project’s three phases looking at the complex processes by which representations emerge through different ‘lenses’ of co-production. Methodologically, the project tests the feasibility of a novel basket of bespoke methods spanning narrative interviews, calendar boundary objects and collaborative sustainability science.
Summary
Climate change may be undermining the stock of seasonal representations that society draws on to understand and live according to the weather. The CALENDARS project studies how modern society represents seasons, and how these representations shape institutions and help people live with seasonal change. The project opens an important emerging field in climate adaptation research by examining the representations of ‘normal’ seasons underlying key institutions, assesses their quality for successful adaptation to rapid climate change, and analyses facilitators and barriers to adopting representations more flexibly to new climates. It contributes a novel perspective on how to transform our institutions – from schools to farmer cooperatives – from the foundational culture and representations up, to better fit the changing seasonal cycles we are experiencing.
CALENDARS empirically explores the relationship between different institutions’ ideas of seasons and their successful adaptation through an in-depth comparative study of a set of institutions in two local communities, in Norway and New Zealand. It is steered by an overall objective to: ‘Advance knowledge and understanding of how seasonal representations shape and are shaped by institutions, and critically appraise the quality of these representations for contributing to successful adaptation to seasonal change’.
Conceptually, CALENDARS looks at representations as continuously ‘co-produced’ at the boundary of nature and society, and society and institutions. It tests a novel reconceptualisation of co-production as a prism; with each of the project’s three phases looking at the complex processes by which representations emerge through different ‘lenses’ of co-production. Methodologically, the project tests the feasibility of a novel basket of bespoke methods spanning narrative interviews, calendar boundary objects and collaborative sustainability science.
Max ERC Funding
1 489 426 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-01-01, End date: 2023-12-31
Project acronym CONSULTATIONEFFECTS
Project Effects of stakeholder consultations on inputs, processes and outcomes of executive policymaking
Researcher (PI) Adriana BUNEA
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITETET I BERGEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Consultations with stakeholders (citizens and interest organizations) are frequently used by executive bureaucracies to design policies and formulate legislation. National ministries, regulatory agencies and the European Commission employ a variety of consultation designs that combine different practices - public consultations, public hearings, workshops, expert groups, advisory committees. Consultations are key to European economic growth strategies such as the Lisbon Agenda and Europe 2020. Despite their near ubiquitous use and legitimising rhetoric, there is currently no systematic analysis assessing empirically the assumption that stakeholders’ participation in policymaking via consultations improves policymaking and results in better outcomes and more legitimate governance. This project aims to address this gap and to systematically investigate and explain the effects of stakeholder consultation designs on policy inputs, processes and outcomes of executive policymaking in 29 political systems: all 28 EU Member States and the EU polity. The project pioneers a path-breaking conceptualisation of consultation designs as representative institutions similar to electoral systems. They play a key instrumental role in the institutional balance of power and constitute a new source of bureaucratic reputation, autonomy and power. The project elaborates an original theory explaining consultation effects on policymaking that accounts for the intrinsic challenges of democratising twenty-first century bureaucracies, and the inherent trade-offs of democratic and technocratic policymaking. Empirically, the project breaks new ground by designing an ambitious data collection strategy aimed to construct an unprecedented, cross-national, comparative dataset on stakeholder consultation designs and characteristics of inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes observed at policy proposal level, across policy areas and political systems.
Summary
Consultations with stakeholders (citizens and interest organizations) are frequently used by executive bureaucracies to design policies and formulate legislation. National ministries, regulatory agencies and the European Commission employ a variety of consultation designs that combine different practices - public consultations, public hearings, workshops, expert groups, advisory committees. Consultations are key to European economic growth strategies such as the Lisbon Agenda and Europe 2020. Despite their near ubiquitous use and legitimising rhetoric, there is currently no systematic analysis assessing empirically the assumption that stakeholders’ participation in policymaking via consultations improves policymaking and results in better outcomes and more legitimate governance. This project aims to address this gap and to systematically investigate and explain the effects of stakeholder consultation designs on policy inputs, processes and outcomes of executive policymaking in 29 political systems: all 28 EU Member States and the EU polity. The project pioneers a path-breaking conceptualisation of consultation designs as representative institutions similar to electoral systems. They play a key instrumental role in the institutional balance of power and constitute a new source of bureaucratic reputation, autonomy and power. The project elaborates an original theory explaining consultation effects on policymaking that accounts for the intrinsic challenges of democratising twenty-first century bureaucracies, and the inherent trade-offs of democratic and technocratic policymaking. Empirically, the project breaks new ground by designing an ambitious data collection strategy aimed to construct an unprecedented, cross-national, comparative dataset on stakeholder consultation designs and characteristics of inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes observed at policy proposal level, across policy areas and political systems.
Max ERC Funding
1 424 856 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-04-01, End date: 2024-03-31
Project acronym CRIMMIGRATION
Project 'Crimmigration': Crime Control in the Borderlands of Europe
Researcher (PI) Katja Franko Aas
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITETET I OSLO
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2010-StG_20091209
Summary Control of migration is becoming an increasingly important task of contemporary policing and criminal justice agencies. The purpose of this project is to map the progressive intertwining and merging of crime control and migration control practices in Europe and to examine their implications.
The project is guided by three sets of research questions: 1) How do contemporary police and criminal justice institutions deal with unwanted mobility and the influx of „aliens‟ (i.e. non-citizens) to their territories? 2) What is the relevance of citizenship for European penal systems? and 3) How do contemporary crime control practices support and perform the task of (cultural and territorial) border control?
The project aims to analyse the impact of the growing emphasis on migration control on criminal justice agencies such as the police, prisons and detention facilities. The basic hypothesis of the project is that migration control objectives are contributing to the development of novel forms of punishment and new rationalities of social control termed „crimmigration‟. The project aims to describe these novel hybrid forms of control since they constitute important conceptual challenges for criminal justice scholarship and require new theoretical perspectives. A question will be asked: what kind of break from traditional criminal justice practices and principles do they represent? Is the focus on punishment and reintegration of offenders gradually being replaced by a focus on diversion, immobilisation and deportation? Moreover what kind of legal, organisational and normative responses do they require?
Summary
Control of migration is becoming an increasingly important task of contemporary policing and criminal justice agencies. The purpose of this project is to map the progressive intertwining and merging of crime control and migration control practices in Europe and to examine their implications.
The project is guided by three sets of research questions: 1) How do contemporary police and criminal justice institutions deal with unwanted mobility and the influx of „aliens‟ (i.e. non-citizens) to their territories? 2) What is the relevance of citizenship for European penal systems? and 3) How do contemporary crime control practices support and perform the task of (cultural and territorial) border control?
The project aims to analyse the impact of the growing emphasis on migration control on criminal justice agencies such as the police, prisons and detention facilities. The basic hypothesis of the project is that migration control objectives are contributing to the development of novel forms of punishment and new rationalities of social control termed „crimmigration‟. The project aims to describe these novel hybrid forms of control since they constitute important conceptual challenges for criminal justice scholarship and require new theoretical perspectives. A question will be asked: what kind of break from traditional criminal justice practices and principles do they represent? Is the focus on punishment and reintegration of offenders gradually being replaced by a focus on diversion, immobilisation and deportation? Moreover what kind of legal, organisational and normative responses do they require?
Max ERC Funding
1 309 800 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-04-01, End date: 2016-03-31
Project acronym FIELDS-KNOTS
Project Quantum fields and knot homologies
Researcher (PI) Piotr Sulkowski
Host Institution (HI) UNIWERSYTET WARSZAWSKI
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2013-StG
Summary This project is concerned with fundamental problems arising at the interface of quantum field theory, knot theory, and the theory of random matrices. The main aim of the project is to understand two of the most profound phenomena in physics and mathematics, namely quantization and categorification, and to establish an explicit and rigorous framework where they come into play in an interrelated fashion. The project and its aims focus on the following areas:
- Knot homologies and superpolynomials. The aim of the project in this area is to determine homological knot invariants and to derive an explicit form of colored superpolynomials for a large class of knots and links.
- Super-A-polynomial. The aim of the project in this area is to develop a theory of the super-A-polynomial, to find an explicit form of the super-A-polynomial for a large class of knots, and to understand its properties.
- Three-dimensional supersymmetric N=2 theories. This project aims to find and understand dualities between theories in this class, in particular theories related to knots by 3d-3d duality, and to generalize this duality to the level of homological knot invariants.
- Topological recursion and quantization. The project aims to develop a quantization procedure based on the topological recursion, to demonstrate its consistency with knot-theoretic quantization of A-polynomials, and to generalize this quantization scheme to super-A-polynomials.
All these research areas are connected via remarkable dualities unraveled very recently by physicists and mathematicians. The project is interdisciplinary and aims to reach the above goals by taking advantage of these dualities, and through simultaneous and complementary development in quantum field theory, knot theory, and random matrix theory, in collaboration with renowned experts in each of those fields.
Summary
This project is concerned with fundamental problems arising at the interface of quantum field theory, knot theory, and the theory of random matrices. The main aim of the project is to understand two of the most profound phenomena in physics and mathematics, namely quantization and categorification, and to establish an explicit and rigorous framework where they come into play in an interrelated fashion. The project and its aims focus on the following areas:
- Knot homologies and superpolynomials. The aim of the project in this area is to determine homological knot invariants and to derive an explicit form of colored superpolynomials for a large class of knots and links.
- Super-A-polynomial. The aim of the project in this area is to develop a theory of the super-A-polynomial, to find an explicit form of the super-A-polynomial for a large class of knots, and to understand its properties.
- Three-dimensional supersymmetric N=2 theories. This project aims to find and understand dualities between theories in this class, in particular theories related to knots by 3d-3d duality, and to generalize this duality to the level of homological knot invariants.
- Topological recursion and quantization. The project aims to develop a quantization procedure based on the topological recursion, to demonstrate its consistency with knot-theoretic quantization of A-polynomials, and to generalize this quantization scheme to super-A-polynomials.
All these research areas are connected via remarkable dualities unraveled very recently by physicists and mathematicians. The project is interdisciplinary and aims to reach the above goals by taking advantage of these dualities, and through simultaneous and complementary development in quantum field theory, knot theory, and random matrix theory, in collaboration with renowned experts in each of those fields.
Max ERC Funding
1 345 080 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-12-01, End date: 2018-11-30
Project acronym gRESONANT
Project Resonant Nuclear Gamma Decay and the Heavy-Element Nucleosynthesis
Researcher (PI) Ann-Cecilie Larsen
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITETET I OSLO
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2014-STG
Summary THE GRAND CHALLENGE: The “Holy Grail” of nuclear astrophysics is to understand the astrophysical processes responsible for the formation of the elements. A particularly challenging part is the description of the heavy-element nucleosynthesis. The only way to build the majority of these heavy nuclides is via neutron-capture processes. Unaccounted-for nuclear structure effects may drastically change these rates.
MAIN HYPOTHESIS: Nuclear low-energy gamma-decay resonances at high excitation energies will enhance the astrophysical neutron-capture reaction rates.
NOVEL APPROACH: This proposal is, for the first time, addressing the M1 scissors resonance in deformed, neutron-rich nuclei and superheavy elements. A new experimental technique will be developed to determine the electromagnetic nature of the unexpected upbend enhancement. Further, s-process branch points for the Re-Os cosmochronology will be studied for the first time with the Oslo method.
OBJECTIVES:
1) Measure s-process branch point nuclei with the Oslo method
2) Radioactive-beam experiments for neutron-rich nuclei searching for the low-energy upbend and the M1 scissors resonance
3) Develop new experimental technique to identify the upbend’s electromagnetic nature
4) Superheavy-element experiments looking for the M1 scissors resonance
POTENTIAL IMPACT IN THE RESEARCH FIELD: This proposal will trigger a new direction of research, as there are no data on the low-energy gamma resonances neither on neutron-rich nor superheavy nuclei. Their presence may have profound implications for the astrophysical neutron-capture rates. Developing a new experimental technique to determine the electromagnetic character of the upbend is crucial to distinguish between two competing explanations of this phenomenon. Unknown neutron-capture cross sections will be estimated with a much better precision than prior to this project, and lead to a major leap forward in the field of nuclear astrophysics.
Summary
THE GRAND CHALLENGE: The “Holy Grail” of nuclear astrophysics is to understand the astrophysical processes responsible for the formation of the elements. A particularly challenging part is the description of the heavy-element nucleosynthesis. The only way to build the majority of these heavy nuclides is via neutron-capture processes. Unaccounted-for nuclear structure effects may drastically change these rates.
MAIN HYPOTHESIS: Nuclear low-energy gamma-decay resonances at high excitation energies will enhance the astrophysical neutron-capture reaction rates.
NOVEL APPROACH: This proposal is, for the first time, addressing the M1 scissors resonance in deformed, neutron-rich nuclei and superheavy elements. A new experimental technique will be developed to determine the electromagnetic nature of the unexpected upbend enhancement. Further, s-process branch points for the Re-Os cosmochronology will be studied for the first time with the Oslo method.
OBJECTIVES:
1) Measure s-process branch point nuclei with the Oslo method
2) Radioactive-beam experiments for neutron-rich nuclei searching for the low-energy upbend and the M1 scissors resonance
3) Develop new experimental technique to identify the upbend’s electromagnetic nature
4) Superheavy-element experiments looking for the M1 scissors resonance
POTENTIAL IMPACT IN THE RESEARCH FIELD: This proposal will trigger a new direction of research, as there are no data on the low-energy gamma resonances neither on neutron-rich nor superheavy nuclei. Their presence may have profound implications for the astrophysical neutron-capture rates. Developing a new experimental technique to determine the electromagnetic character of the upbend is crucial to distinguish between two competing explanations of this phenomenon. Unknown neutron-capture cross sections will be estimated with a much better precision than prior to this project, and lead to a major leap forward in the field of nuclear astrophysics.
Max ERC Funding
1 443 472 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-03-01, End date: 2020-02-29
Project acronym KaraimBible
Project (Re)constructing a Bible. A new approach to unedited Biblical manuscripts as sources for the early history of the Karaim language
Researcher (PI) Michal NÉMETH
Host Institution (HI) UNIWERSYTET JAGIELLONSKI
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Eastern European Karaims are the sole representatives of Karaite Judaism in Europe. Their native tongue is a severely endangered Turkic vernacular listed on the UNESCO Atlas of the Worlds’ Languages in Danger. Due to many historical events, including World War II and the Soviet era, the cultural heritage of this intriguing ethnic minority suffered great losses. At the same time, since its investigation requires a rare combination of unique linguistic and palaeographic skills merely a fraction of its surviving written heritage has entered scholarly circulation. In particular, no comprehensive edition of the Karaim Hebrew Bible exists, even though nearly 100 Karaim Biblical texts have been discovered to date.
The project will construct a digital edition of the entire Karaim Bible, almost exclusively based on unedited texts in Hebrew script (15th–20th cc). It will be used as a tool to deliver the first linguistic and palaeographic descriptions of the oldest, still unedited records of Karaim as well as reconstruct the way in which the Karaim Bible was created. Combining traditional and computer-aided research methods will provide essential data on the early history of the Karaim language and ethnicity. The edition will be a highly complex instrument interconnected with a dictionary, which is an absolute novelty in the field.
The edition will contain the first ever comprehensive Karaim translation intelligible to present-day native-speakers. The texts will be treated according to the principles of textual criticism and translated into English. If permitted, facsimiles will be provided. One exciting aspect of the enterprise is that it will offer a virtual unification of the Karaim translations of one of the most important and influential works in world literature. Such a task is of fundamental importance and is crucial to sustaining an endangered culture, given that an awareness of the oldest Bible translations is an important component of European national identities.
Summary
Eastern European Karaims are the sole representatives of Karaite Judaism in Europe. Their native tongue is a severely endangered Turkic vernacular listed on the UNESCO Atlas of the Worlds’ Languages in Danger. Due to many historical events, including World War II and the Soviet era, the cultural heritage of this intriguing ethnic minority suffered great losses. At the same time, since its investigation requires a rare combination of unique linguistic and palaeographic skills merely a fraction of its surviving written heritage has entered scholarly circulation. In particular, no comprehensive edition of the Karaim Hebrew Bible exists, even though nearly 100 Karaim Biblical texts have been discovered to date.
The project will construct a digital edition of the entire Karaim Bible, almost exclusively based on unedited texts in Hebrew script (15th–20th cc). It will be used as a tool to deliver the first linguistic and palaeographic descriptions of the oldest, still unedited records of Karaim as well as reconstruct the way in which the Karaim Bible was created. Combining traditional and computer-aided research methods will provide essential data on the early history of the Karaim language and ethnicity. The edition will be a highly complex instrument interconnected with a dictionary, which is an absolute novelty in the field.
The edition will contain the first ever comprehensive Karaim translation intelligible to present-day native-speakers. The texts will be treated according to the principles of textual criticism and translated into English. If permitted, facsimiles will be provided. One exciting aspect of the enterprise is that it will offer a virtual unification of the Karaim translations of one of the most important and influential works in world literature. Such a task is of fundamental importance and is crucial to sustaining an endangered culture, given that an awareness of the oldest Bible translations is an important component of European national identities.
Max ERC Funding
1 484 075 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-02-01, End date: 2024-01-31
Project acronym LITTLE TOOLS
Project Enacting the Good Economy: Biocapitalization and the little tools of valuation
Researcher (PI) Kristin Asdal
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITETET I OSLO
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2014-STG
Summary What shall we live off in the future? Where will our food come from, and what will form the basis for our economies? A so-called “blue revolution”, where fish become farmed rather than caught, is increasingly presented as an answer to the above questions. This transformation of the economy exemplifies ongoing efforts to produce new forms of capital out of the ordering and reordering of life. These processes are intimately related to the expanding life sciences, the bioeconomy and what is sometimes called new forms of biocapital.
But how do such large transformations take place in actual practice, and by which means? This project argues that if we are to understand such major transformations we need to study “little tools”, that is, material-semiotic entities that carefully modify and work upon bodies, markets and science.
Emerging bioeconomies are expected not only to produce economic value but also to enact values in other ways that contribute to what this project refers to as “the good economy”. Such values include enabling sustainable fisheries, secure animal welfare or sustainable growth.
The main hypothesis of the current project is that the enactment of the good economy can be studied by valuation practices performed by material-semiotic little tools. The project will explore this hypothesis at multiple sites for biocapitalization: science, the market, policy and funding institutions. This project will focus on how these interact and encounter one another. The aim is twofold: first, to provide new empirical insights about how biocapitalization processes are enacted in practice and at strategic sites, using cross-disciplinary methods from actor-network theory, the humanities and economic sociology; second to contribute analytically and methodologically to the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) by drawing on resources from economic sociology and the humanities in order to provide an analytical framework for comprehending biocapitalization practices.
Summary
What shall we live off in the future? Where will our food come from, and what will form the basis for our economies? A so-called “blue revolution”, where fish become farmed rather than caught, is increasingly presented as an answer to the above questions. This transformation of the economy exemplifies ongoing efforts to produce new forms of capital out of the ordering and reordering of life. These processes are intimately related to the expanding life sciences, the bioeconomy and what is sometimes called new forms of biocapital.
But how do such large transformations take place in actual practice, and by which means? This project argues that if we are to understand such major transformations we need to study “little tools”, that is, material-semiotic entities that carefully modify and work upon bodies, markets and science.
Emerging bioeconomies are expected not only to produce economic value but also to enact values in other ways that contribute to what this project refers to as “the good economy”. Such values include enabling sustainable fisheries, secure animal welfare or sustainable growth.
The main hypothesis of the current project is that the enactment of the good economy can be studied by valuation practices performed by material-semiotic little tools. The project will explore this hypothesis at multiple sites for biocapitalization: science, the market, policy and funding institutions. This project will focus on how these interact and encounter one another. The aim is twofold: first, to provide new empirical insights about how biocapitalization processes are enacted in practice and at strategic sites, using cross-disciplinary methods from actor-network theory, the humanities and economic sociology; second to contribute analytically and methodologically to the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) by drawing on resources from economic sociology and the humanities in order to provide an analytical framework for comprehending biocapitalization practices.
Max ERC Funding
1 495 079 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2020-08-31
Project acronym LORAX
Project The Lorax Project: Understanding Ecosystemic Politics
Researcher (PI) Elana Tovah Wilson ROWE
Host Institution (HI) NORSK UTENRIKSPOLITISK INSTITUTT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2018-STG
Summary The Lorax project is a comparative effort to expand our understanding of global political architecture through the consideration of a potential set of ‘missing cases’, namely supranational policy fields organized around regional ecosystems. The project explores this question: Do regional politics around national border-crossing ecosystems share important resemblances and differ in significant ways from global politics? To address this question, the Lorax project analyzes the networks of actors, hierarchies between actors and diplomatic norms of the governance fields that have grown up around efforts to ‘speak for’ border-crossing ecosystems in three locations – the Arctic Ocean, the Amazon Basin, and the Caspian Sea.
‘Ecosystemic politics’ is meant to indicate regional-level political efforts justified by the shared management or discussion of collectively acknowledged ‘border-crossing’ ecosystems. Frequently, the political cooperation may be on issues that would be seen as environmental or regulatory politics relating to the ecosystem itself, but ecosystemic politics is not, by definition, limited to such questions of environmental politics. Rather, the word ‘ecosystemic’ gives the Lorax team a sense of where to look without presupposing the interests and issues that engaged actors may bring to those regional interactions.
The project aims to generate new insights about the architecture and dynamics of global governance by rigorously researching and then comparing three cases of policy fields around national border-crossing ecosystems. The team will consist of the PI, a postdoc, a PhD and additional senior researcher capacity as needed. An ambitious, but achievable, publication plan (9 articles, 1 book) is mapped out to ensure rigorous finalization of results and dissemination to social science fields engaged with supranational governance questions.
Summary
The Lorax project is a comparative effort to expand our understanding of global political architecture through the consideration of a potential set of ‘missing cases’, namely supranational policy fields organized around regional ecosystems. The project explores this question: Do regional politics around national border-crossing ecosystems share important resemblances and differ in significant ways from global politics? To address this question, the Lorax project analyzes the networks of actors, hierarchies between actors and diplomatic norms of the governance fields that have grown up around efforts to ‘speak for’ border-crossing ecosystems in three locations – the Arctic Ocean, the Amazon Basin, and the Caspian Sea.
‘Ecosystemic politics’ is meant to indicate regional-level political efforts justified by the shared management or discussion of collectively acknowledged ‘border-crossing’ ecosystems. Frequently, the political cooperation may be on issues that would be seen as environmental or regulatory politics relating to the ecosystem itself, but ecosystemic politics is not, by definition, limited to such questions of environmental politics. Rather, the word ‘ecosystemic’ gives the Lorax team a sense of where to look without presupposing the interests and issues that engaged actors may bring to those regional interactions.
The project aims to generate new insights about the architecture and dynamics of global governance by rigorously researching and then comparing three cases of policy fields around national border-crossing ecosystems. The team will consist of the PI, a postdoc, a PhD and additional senior researcher capacity as needed. An ambitious, but achievable, publication plan (9 articles, 1 book) is mapped out to ensure rigorous finalization of results and dissemination to social science fields engaged with supranational governance questions.
Max ERC Funding
1 496 848 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-01-01, End date: 2023-12-31
