Project acronym BLOCKCHAINSOCIETY
Project The Disrupted Society: mapping the societal effects of blockchain technology diffusion
Researcher (PI) Balazs BODO
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2017-STG
Summary Recent advances in cryptography yielded the blockchain technology, which enables a radically new and decentralized method to maintain authoritative records, without the need of trusted intermediaries. Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency blockchain application has already demonstrated that it is possible to operate a purely cryptography-based, global, distributed, decentralized, anonymous financial network, independent from central and commercial banks, regulators and the state.
The same technology is now being applied to other social domains (e.g. public registries of ownership and deeds, voting systems, the internet domain name registry). But research on the societal impact of blockchain innovation is scant, and we cannot properly assess its risks and promises. In addition, crucial knowledge is missing on how blockchain technologies can and should be regulated by law.
The BlockchainSociety project focuses on three research questions. (1) What internal factors contribute to the success of a blockchain application? (2) How does society adopt blockchain? (3) How to regulate blockchain? It breaks new ground as it (1) maps the most important blockchain projects, their governance, and assesses their disruptive potential; (2) documents and analyses the social diffusion of the technology, and builds scenarios about the potential impact of blockchain diffusion; and (3) it creates an inventory of emerging policy responses, compares and assesses policy tools in terms of efficiency and impact. The project will (1) build the conceptual and methodological bridges between information law, the study of the self-governance of technological systems via Science and Technology Studies, and the study of collective control efforts of complex socio-technological assemblages via Internet Governance studies; (2) address the most pressing blockchain-specific regulatory challenges via the analysis of emerging policies, and the development of new proposals.
Summary
Recent advances in cryptography yielded the blockchain technology, which enables a radically new and decentralized method to maintain authoritative records, without the need of trusted intermediaries. Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency blockchain application has already demonstrated that it is possible to operate a purely cryptography-based, global, distributed, decentralized, anonymous financial network, independent from central and commercial banks, regulators and the state.
The same technology is now being applied to other social domains (e.g. public registries of ownership and deeds, voting systems, the internet domain name registry). But research on the societal impact of blockchain innovation is scant, and we cannot properly assess its risks and promises. In addition, crucial knowledge is missing on how blockchain technologies can and should be regulated by law.
The BlockchainSociety project focuses on three research questions. (1) What internal factors contribute to the success of a blockchain application? (2) How does society adopt blockchain? (3) How to regulate blockchain? It breaks new ground as it (1) maps the most important blockchain projects, their governance, and assesses their disruptive potential; (2) documents and analyses the social diffusion of the technology, and builds scenarios about the potential impact of blockchain diffusion; and (3) it creates an inventory of emerging policy responses, compares and assesses policy tools in terms of efficiency and impact. The project will (1) build the conceptual and methodological bridges between information law, the study of the self-governance of technological systems via Science and Technology Studies, and the study of collective control efforts of complex socio-technological assemblages via Internet Governance studies; (2) address the most pressing blockchain-specific regulatory challenges via the analysis of emerging policies, and the development of new proposals.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 631 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-01-01, End date: 2022-12-31
Project acronym BSP
Project Belief Systems Project
Researcher (PI) Mark BRANDT
Host Institution (HI) STICHTING KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT BRABANT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2017-STG
Summary Belief systems research is vital for understanding democratic politics, extremism, and political decision-making. What is the basic structure of belief systems? Clear answers to this fundamental question are not forthcoming. This is due to flaws in the conceptualization of belief systems. The state-of-the-art treats a belief system as a theoretical latent variable that causes people’s responses on attitudes and values relevant to the belief system. This approach cannot assess a belief system because it cannot assess the network of connections between the beliefs–attitudes and values–that make up the system; it collapses across them and the interrelationships are lost.
The Belief Systems Project conceptualizations belief systems as systems of interconnecting attitudes and values. I conceptualize attitudes and values as interactive nodes in a network that are analysed with network analyses. With these conceptual and empirical tools, I can understand the structure and dynamics of the belief system and will be able to avoid theoretical pitfalls common in belief system assessments. This project will move belief systems research beyond the state-of-the-art in four ways by:
1. Mapping the structure of systems of attitudes and values, something that is not possible using current methods.
2. Answering classic questions about central concepts and clustering of belief systems.
3. Modeling within-person belief systems and their variations, so that I can make accurate predictions about partisan motivated reasoning.
4. Testing how external and internal pressures (e.g., feelings of threat) change the underlying structure and dynamics of belief systems.
Using survey data from around the world, longitudinal panel studies, intensive longitudinal designs, experiments, and text analyses, I will triangulate on the structure of political belief systems over time, between countries, and within individuals.
Summary
Belief systems research is vital for understanding democratic politics, extremism, and political decision-making. What is the basic structure of belief systems? Clear answers to this fundamental question are not forthcoming. This is due to flaws in the conceptualization of belief systems. The state-of-the-art treats a belief system as a theoretical latent variable that causes people’s responses on attitudes and values relevant to the belief system. This approach cannot assess a belief system because it cannot assess the network of connections between the beliefs–attitudes and values–that make up the system; it collapses across them and the interrelationships are lost.
The Belief Systems Project conceptualizations belief systems as systems of interconnecting attitudes and values. I conceptualize attitudes and values as interactive nodes in a network that are analysed with network analyses. With these conceptual and empirical tools, I can understand the structure and dynamics of the belief system and will be able to avoid theoretical pitfalls common in belief system assessments. This project will move belief systems research beyond the state-of-the-art in four ways by:
1. Mapping the structure of systems of attitudes and values, something that is not possible using current methods.
2. Answering classic questions about central concepts and clustering of belief systems.
3. Modeling within-person belief systems and their variations, so that I can make accurate predictions about partisan motivated reasoning.
4. Testing how external and internal pressures (e.g., feelings of threat) change the underlying structure and dynamics of belief systems.
Using survey data from around the world, longitudinal panel studies, intensive longitudinal designs, experiments, and text analyses, I will triangulate on the structure of political belief systems over time, between countries, and within individuals.
Max ERC Funding
1 496 944 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-07-01, End date: 2023-06-30
Project acronym CAPE
Project Ghosts from the past: Consequences of Adolescent Peer Experiences across social contexts and generations
Researcher (PI) Tina KRETSCHMER
Host Institution (HI) RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2017-STG
Summary Positive peer experiences are crucial for young people’s health and wellbeing. Accordingly, multiple studies (including my own) have described long-term negative psychological and behavioral consequences when adolescents’ peer relationships are dysfunctional. Paradoxically, knowledge on adult social consequences of adolescent peer experiences –relationships with others a decade later - is much less extensive. Informed by social learning and attachment theory, I tackle this gap and investigate whether and how peer experiences are transmitted to other social contexts, and intergenerationally, i.e., passed on to the next generation. My aim is to shed light on how the “ghosts from peer past” affect young adults’ relationships and their children. To this end, I examine longitudinal links between adolescent peer and young adult close relationships and test whether parents’ peer experiences affect offspring’s peer experiences. Psychological functioning, parenting, temperament, genetic, and epigenetic transmission mechanisms are examined separately and in interplay, which 1) goes far beyond the current state-of-the-art in social development research, and 2) significantly broadens my biosocially oriented work on genetic effects in the peer context. My plans utilize data from the TRAILS (Tracking Adolescents’ Individual Lives’ Survey) cohort that has been followed from age 11 to 26. To study intergenerational transmission, the TRAILS NEXT sample of participants with children is substantially extended. This project uniquely studies adult social consequences of peer experiences and, at the same time, follows children’s first steps into the peer world. The intergenerational approach and provision for environmental, genetic, and epigenetic mediation put this project at the forefront of developmental research and equip it with the potential to generate the knowledge needed to chase away the ghosts from the peer past.
Summary
Positive peer experiences are crucial for young people’s health and wellbeing. Accordingly, multiple studies (including my own) have described long-term negative psychological and behavioral consequences when adolescents’ peer relationships are dysfunctional. Paradoxically, knowledge on adult social consequences of adolescent peer experiences –relationships with others a decade later - is much less extensive. Informed by social learning and attachment theory, I tackle this gap and investigate whether and how peer experiences are transmitted to other social contexts, and intergenerationally, i.e., passed on to the next generation. My aim is to shed light on how the “ghosts from peer past” affect young adults’ relationships and their children. To this end, I examine longitudinal links between adolescent peer and young adult close relationships and test whether parents’ peer experiences affect offspring’s peer experiences. Psychological functioning, parenting, temperament, genetic, and epigenetic transmission mechanisms are examined separately and in interplay, which 1) goes far beyond the current state-of-the-art in social development research, and 2) significantly broadens my biosocially oriented work on genetic effects in the peer context. My plans utilize data from the TRAILS (Tracking Adolescents’ Individual Lives’ Survey) cohort that has been followed from age 11 to 26. To study intergenerational transmission, the TRAILS NEXT sample of participants with children is substantially extended. This project uniquely studies adult social consequences of peer experiences and, at the same time, follows children’s first steps into the peer world. The intergenerational approach and provision for environmental, genetic, and epigenetic mediation put this project at the forefront of developmental research and equip it with the potential to generate the knowledge needed to chase away the ghosts from the peer past.
Max ERC Funding
1 464 846 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-02-01, End date: 2023-01-31
Project acronym CRITIQUEUE
Project Critical queues and reflected stochastic processes
Researcher (PI) Johannes S.H. Van Leeuwaarden
Host Institution (HI) TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT EINDHOVEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE1, ERC-2010-StG_20091028
Summary Our primary motivation stems from queueing theory, the branch of applied probability that deals with congestion phenomena. Congestion levels are typically nonnegative, which is why reflected stochastic processes arise naturally in queueing theory. Other applications of reflected stochastic processes are in the fields of branching processes and random graphs.
We are particularly interested in critically-loaded queueing systems (close to 100% utilization), also referred to as queues in heavy traffic. Heavy-traffic analysis typically reduces complicated queueing processes to much simpler (reflected) limit processes or scaling limits. This makes the analysis of complex systems tractable, and from a mathematical point of view, these results are appealing since they can be made rigorous. Within the large
body of literature on heavy-traffic theory and critical stochastic processes, we launch two new research lines:
(i) Time-dependent analysis through scaling limits.
(ii) Dimensioning stochastic systems via refined scaling limits and optimization.
Both research lines involve mathematical techniques that combine stochastic theory with asymptotic theory, complex analysis, functional analysis, and modern probabilistic methods. It will provide a platform enabling collaborations between researchers in pure and applied probability and researchers in performance analysis of queueing systems. This will particularly be the case at TU/e, the host institution, and at
the affiliated institution EURANDOM.
Summary
Our primary motivation stems from queueing theory, the branch of applied probability that deals with congestion phenomena. Congestion levels are typically nonnegative, which is why reflected stochastic processes arise naturally in queueing theory. Other applications of reflected stochastic processes are in the fields of branching processes and random graphs.
We are particularly interested in critically-loaded queueing systems (close to 100% utilization), also referred to as queues in heavy traffic. Heavy-traffic analysis typically reduces complicated queueing processes to much simpler (reflected) limit processes or scaling limits. This makes the analysis of complex systems tractable, and from a mathematical point of view, these results are appealing since they can be made rigorous. Within the large
body of literature on heavy-traffic theory and critical stochastic processes, we launch two new research lines:
(i) Time-dependent analysis through scaling limits.
(ii) Dimensioning stochastic systems via refined scaling limits and optimization.
Both research lines involve mathematical techniques that combine stochastic theory with asymptotic theory, complex analysis, functional analysis, and modern probabilistic methods. It will provide a platform enabling collaborations between researchers in pure and applied probability and researchers in performance analysis of queueing systems. This will particularly be the case at TU/e, the host institution, and at
the affiliated institution EURANDOM.
Max ERC Funding
970 800 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-08-01, End date: 2016-07-31
Project acronym Digital Good
Project The Digital Disruption of Health Research and the Common Good. An Empirical-Philosophical Study
Researcher (PI) Tamar Sharon
Host Institution (HI) STICHTING KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2018-STG
Summary In the last three years, every major consumer technology company has moved into the health research domain. We are witnessing a digital disruption of health research, or a “Googlization of health research” (GHR). This project will be the first wide-ranging, interdisciplinary study of GHR. Its aim is to develop a normative framework for personal health data governance in this setting, where digital health and digital capitalism, and codes of research ethics and the lawlessness of the Internet economy, intersect.
I contend that the most pressing challenge at stake in this new model of research is less the question of individual privacy than the question of collective and societal welfare, and that existing governance frameworks that seek to increase individual control over data are ill-suited to address this. Commons- and solidarity-based approaches, which seek to enhance collective agency and control, are thus promising alternatives. However, these approaches allow for only one conception of the common good, while a plurality of competing conceptions are at work in GHR, including “increased efficiency”, “greater inclusivity”, and “economic growth”. This plurality must be taken seriously to avoid theory-practice discrepancies and to develop viable governance solutions.
The project will develop a normative framework that can both foreground collective benefit all the while accounting for this ethical plurality. To do this, my team will first map the different conceptions of the common good – or “moral repertoires” – that motivate actors in several GHR-type collaborations. Using an empirical-philosophical methodology, we will critically evaluate these repertoires and the value trade-offs they involve in practice. Next, we will explore the viability of commons- and solidarity-based approaches in light of this. Finally, these results will be integrated into a novel, empirically-robust normative framework that can offer guidance to research ethicists and policy makers.
Summary
In the last three years, every major consumer technology company has moved into the health research domain. We are witnessing a digital disruption of health research, or a “Googlization of health research” (GHR). This project will be the first wide-ranging, interdisciplinary study of GHR. Its aim is to develop a normative framework for personal health data governance in this setting, where digital health and digital capitalism, and codes of research ethics and the lawlessness of the Internet economy, intersect.
I contend that the most pressing challenge at stake in this new model of research is less the question of individual privacy than the question of collective and societal welfare, and that existing governance frameworks that seek to increase individual control over data are ill-suited to address this. Commons- and solidarity-based approaches, which seek to enhance collective agency and control, are thus promising alternatives. However, these approaches allow for only one conception of the common good, while a plurality of competing conceptions are at work in GHR, including “increased efficiency”, “greater inclusivity”, and “economic growth”. This plurality must be taken seriously to avoid theory-practice discrepancies and to develop viable governance solutions.
The project will develop a normative framework that can both foreground collective benefit all the while accounting for this ethical plurality. To do this, my team will first map the different conceptions of the common good – or “moral repertoires” – that motivate actors in several GHR-type collaborations. Using an empirical-philosophical methodology, we will critically evaluate these repertoires and the value trade-offs they involve in practice. Next, we will explore the viability of commons- and solidarity-based approaches in light of this. Finally, these results will be integrated into a novel, empirically-robust normative framework that can offer guidance to research ethicists and policy makers.
Max ERC Funding
1 323 473 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-01-01, End date: 2023-12-31
Project acronym DigitalDoctors
Project Making Clinical Sense: A comparative study of how doctors learn in digital times
Researcher (PI) Anna Harris
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT MAASTRICHT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2015-STG
Summary Digital technologies are reconfiguring medical practices in ways we still don’t understand. This research project seeks to examine the impact of the digital in medicine by studying the role of pedagogical technologies in how doctors learn the skills of their profession. It focuses on the centuries-old skill of physical examination; a sensing of the body, through the body. Increasingly medical students are learning these skills away from the bedside, through videos, simulated models and in laboratories. My research team will interrogate how learning with these technologies impacts on how doctors learn to sense bodies. Through the rich case of doctors-in-training the study addresses a key challenge in social scientific scholarship regarding how technologies, particularly those digital and virtual, are implicated in bodily, sensory knowing of the world. Our research takes a historically-attuned comparative anthropology approach, advancing the social study of medicine and medical education research in three new directions. First, a team of three ethnographers will attend to both spectacular and mundane technologies in medical education, recognising that everyday learning situations are filled with technologies old and new. Second, it offers the first comparative social study of medical education with fieldwork in three materially and culturally different settings in Western and Eastern Europe, and West Africa. Finally, the study brings historical and ethnographic research of technologies closer together, with a historian conducting oral histories and archival research at each site. Findings will have impact in the social sciences and education research by advancing understanding of how the digital and other technologies are implicated in skills learning. The study will develop novel digital-sensory methodologies and boldly, a new theory of techno-perception. These academic contributions will have practical relevance by improving the training of doctors in digital times.
Summary
Digital technologies are reconfiguring medical practices in ways we still don’t understand. This research project seeks to examine the impact of the digital in medicine by studying the role of pedagogical technologies in how doctors learn the skills of their profession. It focuses on the centuries-old skill of physical examination; a sensing of the body, through the body. Increasingly medical students are learning these skills away from the bedside, through videos, simulated models and in laboratories. My research team will interrogate how learning with these technologies impacts on how doctors learn to sense bodies. Through the rich case of doctors-in-training the study addresses a key challenge in social scientific scholarship regarding how technologies, particularly those digital and virtual, are implicated in bodily, sensory knowing of the world. Our research takes a historically-attuned comparative anthropology approach, advancing the social study of medicine and medical education research in three new directions. First, a team of three ethnographers will attend to both spectacular and mundane technologies in medical education, recognising that everyday learning situations are filled with technologies old and new. Second, it offers the first comparative social study of medical education with fieldwork in three materially and culturally different settings in Western and Eastern Europe, and West Africa. Finally, the study brings historical and ethnographic research of technologies closer together, with a historian conducting oral histories and archival research at each site. Findings will have impact in the social sciences and education research by advancing understanding of how the digital and other technologies are implicated in skills learning. The study will develop novel digital-sensory methodologies and boldly, a new theory of techno-perception. These academic contributions will have practical relevance by improving the training of doctors in digital times.
Max ERC Funding
1 361 507 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-03-01, End date: 2021-02-28
Project acronym DONORS
Project Who gives life? Understanding, explaining and predicting donor behaviour
Researcher (PI) Eva-Maria MERZ
Host Institution (HI) STICHTING VU
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Background: Why do individuals repeatedly help strangers even when this incurs personal costs? Current evidence on prosocial behaviour is contradictory, scattered across disciplines, restricted to one-country studies, not taking into account contextual influences, and fails to capture its dynamic nature. An integrated model is needed to increase understanding of prosociality as a societal core value.
Aim: To break with monodisciplinary approaches, and grasp the dynamic and contextual nature of prosocial behaviour, I propose a life course model to link individual determinants, social network characteristics and societal contexts. I will test the model in the case of blood donation, as example of real world prosociality where a stranger is helped at a donor’s personal costs.
Approach: DONORS comprises three interlinked work packages. 1) Dynamic interplay among individual and network determinants of donor behaviour over the life course. 2) Genetic determinants of prosociality. 3) Contextual variation in donor behaviour. To validate my model, I use six unique, complementary datasets, including prospective, retrospective, country-comparative survey, genetic and registry data.
Innovation: 1) A multidisciplinary view —including demography, sociology, psychology— within a dynamic life course approach to enhance theory building. 2) A multi-method design, linking sociological survey with objective health-registry data and combining psychosocial with genetic data. 3) Using country-comparisons to account for the societal contexts in which donor behaviour occurs.
Impact: DONORS will inspire a new era of multidisciplinary research on prosocial behaviour. With backgrounds in Medicine, Social Sciences and Psychology, years of experience in science and practice and high-level, award-winning international publications, I am uniquely suited to combine insights from social and health sciences to set the stage for a comprehensive, innovative scientific view on donor behaviour.
Summary
Background: Why do individuals repeatedly help strangers even when this incurs personal costs? Current evidence on prosocial behaviour is contradictory, scattered across disciplines, restricted to one-country studies, not taking into account contextual influences, and fails to capture its dynamic nature. An integrated model is needed to increase understanding of prosociality as a societal core value.
Aim: To break with monodisciplinary approaches, and grasp the dynamic and contextual nature of prosocial behaviour, I propose a life course model to link individual determinants, social network characteristics and societal contexts. I will test the model in the case of blood donation, as example of real world prosociality where a stranger is helped at a donor’s personal costs.
Approach: DONORS comprises three interlinked work packages. 1) Dynamic interplay among individual and network determinants of donor behaviour over the life course. 2) Genetic determinants of prosociality. 3) Contextual variation in donor behaviour. To validate my model, I use six unique, complementary datasets, including prospective, retrospective, country-comparative survey, genetic and registry data.
Innovation: 1) A multidisciplinary view —including demography, sociology, psychology— within a dynamic life course approach to enhance theory building. 2) A multi-method design, linking sociological survey with objective health-registry data and combining psychosocial with genetic data. 3) Using country-comparisons to account for the societal contexts in which donor behaviour occurs.
Impact: DONORS will inspire a new era of multidisciplinary research on prosocial behaviour. With backgrounds in Medicine, Social Sciences and Psychology, years of experience in science and practice and high-level, award-winning international publications, I am uniquely suited to combine insights from social and health sciences to set the stage for a comprehensive, innovative scientific view on donor behaviour.
Max ERC Funding
1 252 720 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-02-01, End date: 2024-01-31
Project acronym ECOSPACE
Project EcoSpace: Spatial-Dynamic Modelling of Adaptation Options to Climate Change at the Ecosystem Scale
Researcher (PI) Lars Gerard Hein
Host Institution (HI) WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2010-StG_20091209
Summary Climate change will necessitate adjustments in ecosystem management in order to maintain the functioning of ecosystems and the supply of ecosystem services. The aim of this project is to develop a spatially explicit, dynamic modelling approach for identifying and analysing adaptation strategies for ecosystem management.
In particular, the project will develop and apply a general, spatial model integrating climate change scenarios, ecosystem dynamics, response thresholds, ecosystem services supply and management options. The scientific innovation of the project lies in the application of an ecosystem services approach to analyse adaptation options, the integration of complex ecosystem dynamics and societal impacts, and the spatially explicit modelling of economic benefits supplied by ecosystems.
The general model will be tested and validated on the basis of three case studies, focussing on: (i) flood protection in the Netherlands; (ii) impacts of climate change in northern Norway; and (iii) optimising land use including production of biofuels stock in Kalimantan, Indonesia. The first two areas are particularly vulnerable to climate change, and the third area is relevant because of its importance as a source of biofuel (palmoil) with associated environmental and social impacts. Each case study will be implemented in collaboration with local and international partners, and will result in the identification of economic efficient, sustainable and equitable local adaptation options.
Summary
Climate change will necessitate adjustments in ecosystem management in order to maintain the functioning of ecosystems and the supply of ecosystem services. The aim of this project is to develop a spatially explicit, dynamic modelling approach for identifying and analysing adaptation strategies for ecosystem management.
In particular, the project will develop and apply a general, spatial model integrating climate change scenarios, ecosystem dynamics, response thresholds, ecosystem services supply and management options. The scientific innovation of the project lies in the application of an ecosystem services approach to analyse adaptation options, the integration of complex ecosystem dynamics and societal impacts, and the spatially explicit modelling of economic benefits supplied by ecosystems.
The general model will be tested and validated on the basis of three case studies, focussing on: (i) flood protection in the Netherlands; (ii) impacts of climate change in northern Norway; and (iii) optimising land use including production of biofuels stock in Kalimantan, Indonesia. The first two areas are particularly vulnerable to climate change, and the third area is relevant because of its importance as a source of biofuel (palmoil) with associated environmental and social impacts. Each case study will be implemented in collaboration with local and international partners, and will result in the identification of economic efficient, sustainable and equitable local adaptation options.
Max ERC Funding
759 600 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-11-01, End date: 2015-10-31
Project acronym EM
Project Elevated Minds. The Sublime in the Public Arts in 17th-century Paris and Amsterdam
Researcher (PI) Stijn Bussels
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2012-StG_20111124
Summary By focussing on how the sublime was used in Amsterdam and Paris in grands travaux and in the theatre and spectacle as part of a strategy to persuade the population of the regime’s legitimacy, this program aims to reconstruct an unknown part of the history of the sublime, and lay the foundation for a study of its role in the visual arts and the theatre of early modern Europe. The hypothesis of this program is that early, often hitherto unknown editions and varieties of the sublime from France and the Dutch Republic should be understood primarily against a political background. Many of these were dedicated to important members of ruling families, made for prominent politicians, or read by the ruling classes. Many poems, plays, spectacle, paintings, buildings and public spaces that were experienced as sublime have clear connections with political issues, in particular with the legitimacy of new rulers or regimes, the murder of politicians, or even regicide. In Amsterdam and Paris conspicuous public works served to proclaim that legitimacy, but also became the locus of its contestation. The sublime was used both as a means of persuasion and as a way of articulating the effect of these works on the viewer.
Summary
By focussing on how the sublime was used in Amsterdam and Paris in grands travaux and in the theatre and spectacle as part of a strategy to persuade the population of the regime’s legitimacy, this program aims to reconstruct an unknown part of the history of the sublime, and lay the foundation for a study of its role in the visual arts and the theatre of early modern Europe. The hypothesis of this program is that early, often hitherto unknown editions and varieties of the sublime from France and the Dutch Republic should be understood primarily against a political background. Many of these were dedicated to important members of ruling families, made for prominent politicians, or read by the ruling classes. Many poems, plays, spectacle, paintings, buildings and public spaces that were experienced as sublime have clear connections with political issues, in particular with the legitimacy of new rulers or regimes, the murder of politicians, or even regicide. In Amsterdam and Paris conspicuous public works served to proclaim that legitimacy, but also became the locus of its contestation. The sublime was used both as a means of persuasion and as a way of articulating the effect of these works on the viewer.
Max ERC Funding
1 245 742 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-02-01, End date: 2018-01-31
Project acronym EXPO
Project Citizens exposed to dissimilar views in the media: investigating backfire effects
Researcher (PI) Magdalena Elzbieta WOJCIESZAK
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2017-STG
Summary In Europe, understanding and respect for those who hold different opinions are needed more than ever. In this context, exposure to dissimilar content in the media is crucial because encountering views that challenge one’s beliefs is hoped to foster tolerance. More and more scholars are interested in media diversity and more and more policymakers encourage citizens to see dissimilar views in the media. However, exposure to difference can also do harm, increasing conflict among citizens with different opinions (backfire effects). Despite these dangers, we lack a comprehensive model that explains when and why exposure to dissimilar views amplifies or attenuates hostilities. What encourages people to see dissimilar political content, on which issues, and in which media? Under what conditions, for whom, and why does exposure to dissimilar views backfire? What can be done to minimize the harms and maximize the benefits of encountering difference? This project addresses these questions. It will advance an evidence-based theoretical model that identifies the individual, social, and system factors that together drive dissimilar exposure and its effects on understanding and respect between citizens with different views. This model accounts for old and new media, various political issues, and intended and incidental exposure.The model will be tested in four projects, each offering methodological breakthroughs. I will use latest techniques in ‘big data’ research, automated content analyses, panel surveys, qualitative work, and experiments; the first project to use this necessary variety of cutting-edge techniques conjointly and comparatively. This project will advance academic knowledge. Its findings are crucial for scholars across disciplines, policymakers who optimize media diversity policies, and media and campaign designers. Only if we know when, how, and why citizens are affected by dissimilar media will we be able to enhance respect and understanding in diverse societies.
Summary
In Europe, understanding and respect for those who hold different opinions are needed more than ever. In this context, exposure to dissimilar content in the media is crucial because encountering views that challenge one’s beliefs is hoped to foster tolerance. More and more scholars are interested in media diversity and more and more policymakers encourage citizens to see dissimilar views in the media. However, exposure to difference can also do harm, increasing conflict among citizens with different opinions (backfire effects). Despite these dangers, we lack a comprehensive model that explains when and why exposure to dissimilar views amplifies or attenuates hostilities. What encourages people to see dissimilar political content, on which issues, and in which media? Under what conditions, for whom, and why does exposure to dissimilar views backfire? What can be done to minimize the harms and maximize the benefits of encountering difference? This project addresses these questions. It will advance an evidence-based theoretical model that identifies the individual, social, and system factors that together drive dissimilar exposure and its effects on understanding and respect between citizens with different views. This model accounts for old and new media, various political issues, and intended and incidental exposure.The model will be tested in four projects, each offering methodological breakthroughs. I will use latest techniques in ‘big data’ research, automated content analyses, panel surveys, qualitative work, and experiments; the first project to use this necessary variety of cutting-edge techniques conjointly and comparatively. This project will advance academic knowledge. Its findings are crucial for scholars across disciplines, policymakers who optimize media diversity policies, and media and campaign designers. Only if we know when, how, and why citizens are affected by dissimilar media will we be able to enhance respect and understanding in diverse societies.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 384 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-09-01, End date: 2023-08-31
