Project acronym AFRIGOS
Project African Governance and Space: Transport Corridors, Border Towns and Port Cities in Transition
Researcher (PI) Paul Christopher Nugent
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2014-ADG
Summary AFRIGOS investigates the process of 'respacing' Africa, a political drive towards regional and continental integration, on the one hand, and the re-casting of Africa's engagement with the global economy, on the other. This is reflected in unprecedented levels of investment in physical and communications infrastructure, and the outsourcing of key functions of Customs, Immigration and security agencies. AFRIGOS poses the question of how far respacing is genuinely forging institutions that are facilitating or obstructing the movement of people and goods; that are enabling or preventing urban and border spaces from being more effectively and responsively governed; and that take into account the needs of African populations whose livelihoods are rooted in mobility and informality. The principal research questions are approached through a comparative study of port cities, border towns and other strategic nodes situated along the busiest transport corridors in East, Central, West and Southern Africa. These represent sites of remarkable dynamism and cosmopolitanism, which reflects their role in connecting African urban centres to each other and to other global cities.
AFRIGOS considers how governance 'assemblages' are forged at different scales and is explicitly comparative. It works through 5 connected Streams that address specific questions: 1. AGENDA-SETTING is concerned with policy (re-)formulation. 2. PERIPHERAL URBANISM examines governance in border towns and port cities. 3. BORDER WORKERS addresses everyday governance emerging through the interaction of officials and others who make their livelihoods from the border. 4. CONNECTIVE INFRASTRUCTURE looks as the transformative effects of new technologies. 5. PEOPLE & GOODS IN MOTION traces the passage of people and goods and the regimes of regulation to which they are subjected. AFRIGOS contributes to interdisciplinary research on borderland studies, multi-level governance and the everyday state.
Summary
AFRIGOS investigates the process of 'respacing' Africa, a political drive towards regional and continental integration, on the one hand, and the re-casting of Africa's engagement with the global economy, on the other. This is reflected in unprecedented levels of investment in physical and communications infrastructure, and the outsourcing of key functions of Customs, Immigration and security agencies. AFRIGOS poses the question of how far respacing is genuinely forging institutions that are facilitating or obstructing the movement of people and goods; that are enabling or preventing urban and border spaces from being more effectively and responsively governed; and that take into account the needs of African populations whose livelihoods are rooted in mobility and informality. The principal research questions are approached through a comparative study of port cities, border towns and other strategic nodes situated along the busiest transport corridors in East, Central, West and Southern Africa. These represent sites of remarkable dynamism and cosmopolitanism, which reflects their role in connecting African urban centres to each other and to other global cities.
AFRIGOS considers how governance 'assemblages' are forged at different scales and is explicitly comparative. It works through 5 connected Streams that address specific questions: 1. AGENDA-SETTING is concerned with policy (re-)formulation. 2. PERIPHERAL URBANISM examines governance in border towns and port cities. 3. BORDER WORKERS addresses everyday governance emerging through the interaction of officials and others who make their livelihoods from the border. 4. CONNECTIVE INFRASTRUCTURE looks as the transformative effects of new technologies. 5. PEOPLE & GOODS IN MOTION traces the passage of people and goods and the regimes of regulation to which they are subjected. AFRIGOS contributes to interdisciplinary research on borderland studies, multi-level governance and the everyday state.
Max ERC Funding
2 491 364 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-01-01, End date: 2020-12-31
Project acronym AnCon
Project A Comparative Anthropology of Conscience, Ethics and Human Rights
Researcher (PI) Tobias William Kelly
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH2, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary This project is a comparative anthropology of conscience, ethics and human rights. Numerous international human rights documents formally declare their commitment to protect freedom of conscience. But, what is conscience and how do we know it when we see it? How do we distinguish it from self-interest or fanaticism? And what happens when the concept, often associated with a distinct Christian or liberal history, travels across cultural boundaries? The project will examine the cultural conditions under which claims to conscience are made possible, and the types of claims that are most persuasive when doing so. The project addresses these issues through the comparative analysis of three case studies: British pacifists, Sri Lankan activists, and Soviet dissidents. These case studies have been carefully chosen to provide globally significant, but contrasting examples of contests over the implications of claims to conscience. If claims of conscience are often associated with a specifically liberal and Christian tradition, mid-twentieth century Britain can be said to stand at the centre of that tradition. Sri Lanka represents a particularly fraught post-colonial South Asian counterpoint, wracked by nationalist violence, and influenced by ethical traditions associated with forms of Hinduism and Buddhism. Soviet Russia represents a further contrast, a totalitarian regime, where atheism was the dominant ethical language. Finally, the project will return specifically to international human rights institutions, examining the history of the category of conscience in the UN human rights system. This project will be ground breaking, employing novel methods and analytical insights, in order to producing the first comparative analysis of the cultural and political salience of claims of conscience. In doing so, the research aims to transform our understandings of the limits and potentials of attempts to protect freedom of conscience.
Summary
This project is a comparative anthropology of conscience, ethics and human rights. Numerous international human rights documents formally declare their commitment to protect freedom of conscience. But, what is conscience and how do we know it when we see it? How do we distinguish it from self-interest or fanaticism? And what happens when the concept, often associated with a distinct Christian or liberal history, travels across cultural boundaries? The project will examine the cultural conditions under which claims to conscience are made possible, and the types of claims that are most persuasive when doing so. The project addresses these issues through the comparative analysis of three case studies: British pacifists, Sri Lankan activists, and Soviet dissidents. These case studies have been carefully chosen to provide globally significant, but contrasting examples of contests over the implications of claims to conscience. If claims of conscience are often associated with a specifically liberal and Christian tradition, mid-twentieth century Britain can be said to stand at the centre of that tradition. Sri Lanka represents a particularly fraught post-colonial South Asian counterpoint, wracked by nationalist violence, and influenced by ethical traditions associated with forms of Hinduism and Buddhism. Soviet Russia represents a further contrast, a totalitarian regime, where atheism was the dominant ethical language. Finally, the project will return specifically to international human rights institutions, examining the history of the category of conscience in the UN human rights system. This project will be ground breaking, employing novel methods and analytical insights, in order to producing the first comparative analysis of the cultural and political salience of claims of conscience. In doing so, the research aims to transform our understandings of the limits and potentials of attempts to protect freedom of conscience.
Max ERC Funding
1 457 869 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-08-01, End date: 2020-07-31
Project acronym BRAIN2MIND_NEUROCOMP
Project Developing and delivering neurocomputational models to bridge between brain and mind.
Researcher (PI) Matthew Lambon Ralph
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2014-ADG
Summary The promise of cognitive neuroscience is truly exciting – to link mind and brain in order to reveal the neural basis of higher cognitive functions. This is crucial, scientifically, if we are to understand the nature of mental processes and how they arise from neural machinery but also, clinically, if we are to establish the basis of neurological patients’ impairments, their clinical management and treatment. Cognitive-clinical neuroscience depends on three ingredients: (a) investigating complex mental behaviours and the underlying cognitive processes; (b) mapping neural systems and their function; and (c) methods and tools that can bridge the gap between brain and mental behaviour. Experimental psychology and behavioural neurology has delivered the first component. In vivo neuroimaging and other allied technologies allow us to probe and map neural systems, their connectivity and neurobiological responses. The principal aim of this ERC Advanced grant is to secure, for the first time, the crucial third ingredient – the methods and tools for bridging systematically between cognitive science and systems neuroscience.
The grant will be based on two main activities: (i) convergence of methods – instead of employing each neuroscience and cognitive method independently, they will be planned and executed simultaneously to force a convergence of results; and (ii) development of a new type of neurocomputational model - to provide a novel formalism for bridging between brain and cognition. Computational models are used in cognitive science to mimic normal and impaired behaviour. Such models also have an as-yet untapped potential to connect neuroanatomy and cognition: latent in every model is a kind of brain-mind duality – each model is based on a computational architecture which generates behaviour. We will retain the ability to simulate detailed cognitive behaviour but simultaneously make the models’ architecture reflect systems-level neuroanatomy and function.
Summary
The promise of cognitive neuroscience is truly exciting – to link mind and brain in order to reveal the neural basis of higher cognitive functions. This is crucial, scientifically, if we are to understand the nature of mental processes and how they arise from neural machinery but also, clinically, if we are to establish the basis of neurological patients’ impairments, their clinical management and treatment. Cognitive-clinical neuroscience depends on three ingredients: (a) investigating complex mental behaviours and the underlying cognitive processes; (b) mapping neural systems and their function; and (c) methods and tools that can bridge the gap between brain and mental behaviour. Experimental psychology and behavioural neurology has delivered the first component. In vivo neuroimaging and other allied technologies allow us to probe and map neural systems, their connectivity and neurobiological responses. The principal aim of this ERC Advanced grant is to secure, for the first time, the crucial third ingredient – the methods and tools for bridging systematically between cognitive science and systems neuroscience.
The grant will be based on two main activities: (i) convergence of methods – instead of employing each neuroscience and cognitive method independently, they will be planned and executed simultaneously to force a convergence of results; and (ii) development of a new type of neurocomputational model - to provide a novel formalism for bridging between brain and cognition. Computational models are used in cognitive science to mimic normal and impaired behaviour. Such models also have an as-yet untapped potential to connect neuroanatomy and cognition: latent in every model is a kind of brain-mind duality – each model is based on a computational architecture which generates behaviour. We will retain the ability to simulate detailed cognitive behaviour but simultaneously make the models’ architecture reflect systems-level neuroanatomy and function.
Max ERC Funding
2 294 781 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-01-01, End date: 2020-12-31
Project acronym BRAVIUS
Project Brain-viscera interactions underlie subjectivity
Researcher (PI) Catherine Tallon-Baudry
Host Institution (HI) ECOLE NORMALE SUPERIEURE
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2014-ADG
Summary Subjectivity defines the subject who is perceiving, feeling, thinking, acting, and is essential to understand the conscious mind from the inside. However, subjectivity, or non-reflective first-person perspective, is not identified as a core concept in cognitive neuroscience and its neural basis remain largely unknown. BRAVIUS offers a unified framework to appraise both the concept and the neural mechanisms generating subjectivity. The hypothesis relies on two vital organs that generate their own rhythmic electrical activity, the stomach and the heart, and therefore constantly send information up to the neocortex, even in the absence of bodily change. Cortical responses to those visceral organs would define the organism as an entity at the neural level, and create a subject-centered referential from which first-person perspective can develop. In other words, the cardiac and gastric pacemakers could feed the brain with self-specifying inputs. BRAVIUS builds on previous theories and studies on visceral states but focuses on ascending information, from viscera to brain, and does not require visceral states to change nor to be consciously perceived. Experimentally, BRAVIUS measures the understudied neural response evoked by heartbeats and introduces a new measure, the electrogastrogram, to quantify the slow gastric pacemaker. BRAVIUS will test with magneto-encephalography (MEG) the role of neural responses to ascending visceral signals in generating subjectivity by cutting across domains of cognitive sciences and exploring diverse paradigms where subjectivity is engaged: perceptual consciousness, self-consciousness, emotions and decision making. BRAVIUS will further explore how cardiac and gastric ascending signals shape the temporal (MEG) and spatial (fMRI) organization of spontaneous brain activity. The project outcome is a detailed mechanistic neural account of the most private part of the human mind, and a unified concept of subjectivity across cognitive domains.
Summary
Subjectivity defines the subject who is perceiving, feeling, thinking, acting, and is essential to understand the conscious mind from the inside. However, subjectivity, or non-reflective first-person perspective, is not identified as a core concept in cognitive neuroscience and its neural basis remain largely unknown. BRAVIUS offers a unified framework to appraise both the concept and the neural mechanisms generating subjectivity. The hypothesis relies on two vital organs that generate their own rhythmic electrical activity, the stomach and the heart, and therefore constantly send information up to the neocortex, even in the absence of bodily change. Cortical responses to those visceral organs would define the organism as an entity at the neural level, and create a subject-centered referential from which first-person perspective can develop. In other words, the cardiac and gastric pacemakers could feed the brain with self-specifying inputs. BRAVIUS builds on previous theories and studies on visceral states but focuses on ascending information, from viscera to brain, and does not require visceral states to change nor to be consciously perceived. Experimentally, BRAVIUS measures the understudied neural response evoked by heartbeats and introduces a new measure, the electrogastrogram, to quantify the slow gastric pacemaker. BRAVIUS will test with magneto-encephalography (MEG) the role of neural responses to ascending visceral signals in generating subjectivity by cutting across domains of cognitive sciences and exploring diverse paradigms where subjectivity is engaged: perceptual consciousness, self-consciousness, emotions and decision making. BRAVIUS will further explore how cardiac and gastric ascending signals shape the temporal (MEG) and spatial (fMRI) organization of spontaneous brain activity. The project outcome is a detailed mechanistic neural account of the most private part of the human mind, and a unified concept of subjectivity across cognitive domains.
Max ERC Funding
2 080 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-12-01, End date: 2020-11-30
Project acronym CALI
Project The Cambodian Archaeological Lidar Initiative: Exploring Resilience in the Engineered Landscapes of Early SE Asia
Researcher (PI) Damian Evans
Host Institution (HI) ECOLE FRANCAISE D'EXTREME-ORIENT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH6, ERC-2014-STG
Summary For over half a millennium, the great medieval capital of Angkor lay at the heart of a vast empire stretching across much of mainland SE Asia. Recent research has revealed that the famous monuments of Angkor were merely the epicentre of an immense settlement complex, with highly elaborate engineering works designed to manage water and mitigate the uncertainty of monsoon rains. Compelling evidence is now emerging that other temple complexes of the medieval Khmer Empire may also have formed the urban cores of dispersed, low-density settlements with similar systems of hydraulic engineering.
Using innovative airborne laser scanning (‘lidar’) technology, CALI will uncover, map and compare archaeological landscapes around all the major temple complexes of Cambodia, with a view to understanding what role these complex and vulnerable water management schemes played in the growth and decline of early civilisations in SE Asia. CALI will evaluate the hypothesis that the Khmer civilisation, in a bid to overcome the inherent constraints of a monsoon environment, became locked into rigid and inflexible traditions of urban development and large-scale hydraulic engineering that constrained their ability to adapt to rapidly-changing social, political and environmental circumstances.
By integrating data and techniques from fast-developing archaeological sciences like remote sensing, palaeoclimatology and geoinformatics, this work will provide important insights into the reasons for the collapse of inland agrarian empires in the middle of the second millennium AD, a transition that marks the emergence of modern mainland SE Asia. The lidar data will provide a comprehensive and internally-consistent archive of urban form at a regional scale, and offer a unique experimental space for evaluating socio-ecological resilience, persistence and transformation over two thousand years of human history, with clear implications for our understanding of contemporary urbanism and of urban futures.
Summary
For over half a millennium, the great medieval capital of Angkor lay at the heart of a vast empire stretching across much of mainland SE Asia. Recent research has revealed that the famous monuments of Angkor were merely the epicentre of an immense settlement complex, with highly elaborate engineering works designed to manage water and mitigate the uncertainty of monsoon rains. Compelling evidence is now emerging that other temple complexes of the medieval Khmer Empire may also have formed the urban cores of dispersed, low-density settlements with similar systems of hydraulic engineering.
Using innovative airborne laser scanning (‘lidar’) technology, CALI will uncover, map and compare archaeological landscapes around all the major temple complexes of Cambodia, with a view to understanding what role these complex and vulnerable water management schemes played in the growth and decline of early civilisations in SE Asia. CALI will evaluate the hypothesis that the Khmer civilisation, in a bid to overcome the inherent constraints of a monsoon environment, became locked into rigid and inflexible traditions of urban development and large-scale hydraulic engineering that constrained their ability to adapt to rapidly-changing social, political and environmental circumstances.
By integrating data and techniques from fast-developing archaeological sciences like remote sensing, palaeoclimatology and geoinformatics, this work will provide important insights into the reasons for the collapse of inland agrarian empires in the middle of the second millennium AD, a transition that marks the emergence of modern mainland SE Asia. The lidar data will provide a comprehensive and internally-consistent archive of urban form at a regional scale, and offer a unique experimental space for evaluating socio-ecological resilience, persistence and transformation over two thousand years of human history, with clear implications for our understanding of contemporary urbanism and of urban futures.
Max ERC Funding
1 482 844 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-03-01, End date: 2020-02-29
Project acronym CASTELLANY ACCOUNTS
Project Record-keeping, fiscal reform, and the rise of institutional accountability in late-medieval Savoy: a source-oriented approach
Researcher (PI) Ionut Epurescu-Pascovici
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITATEA DIN BUCURESTI
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH6, ERC-2014-STG
Summary The present research project focuses on an unjustly neglected corpus of late-medieval sources, the administrative and fiscal accounts (‘computi’) of the castellanies – basic administrative units – of the county of Savoy. I propose a holistic model of analysis that can fully capitalise on the unusual wealth of detail of the Savoyard source material, in order to illuminate some key topics in late-medieval institutional and socio-economic history, from the development of state institutions through administrative and fiscal reform – with particular attention to the transition from personal to institutional accountability – to the question of socio-economic growth, decline, and recovery during the turbulent period of the late-thirteenth to the late-fourteenth century. More broadly, my research into these topics aims to contribute to our understanding of the late-medieval origins of European modernity. The advances of pragmatic literacy, record-keeping, and auditing practices will be analysed with the aid of anthropological and social scientific theories of practice. By comparing the Savoyard ‘computi’ with their sources of inspiration, from the Anglo-Norman pipe rolls to the Catalan fiscal records, the project aims to highlight the creative adaptation of imported administrative models, and thus to contribute to our knowledge of institutional transfers in European history. The project will develop an inclusive frame of analysis in which the ‘computi’ will be read against the evidence from enfeoffment charters, castellany surveys (‘extente’), and the records of direct taxation (‘subsidia’). The serial data will be analysed by building a database; the findings of quantitative analysis will be verified by case studies of the individuals and families (many from the middle social strata) that surface in the fiscal records.
Summary
The present research project focuses on an unjustly neglected corpus of late-medieval sources, the administrative and fiscal accounts (‘computi’) of the castellanies – basic administrative units – of the county of Savoy. I propose a holistic model of analysis that can fully capitalise on the unusual wealth of detail of the Savoyard source material, in order to illuminate some key topics in late-medieval institutional and socio-economic history, from the development of state institutions through administrative and fiscal reform – with particular attention to the transition from personal to institutional accountability – to the question of socio-economic growth, decline, and recovery during the turbulent period of the late-thirteenth to the late-fourteenth century. More broadly, my research into these topics aims to contribute to our understanding of the late-medieval origins of European modernity. The advances of pragmatic literacy, record-keeping, and auditing practices will be analysed with the aid of anthropological and social scientific theories of practice. By comparing the Savoyard ‘computi’ with their sources of inspiration, from the Anglo-Norman pipe rolls to the Catalan fiscal records, the project aims to highlight the creative adaptation of imported administrative models, and thus to contribute to our knowledge of institutional transfers in European history. The project will develop an inclusive frame of analysis in which the ‘computi’ will be read against the evidence from enfeoffment charters, castellany surveys (‘extente’), and the records of direct taxation (‘subsidia’). The serial data will be analysed by building a database; the findings of quantitative analysis will be verified by case studies of the individuals and families (many from the middle social strata) that surface in the fiscal records.
Max ERC Funding
671 875 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-05-01, End date: 2020-04-30
Project acronym CCT
Project The psychology and neurobiology of cognitive control training in humans
Researcher (PI) Christopher David Iain Chambers
Host Institution (HI) CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary Cognitive control regulates our thoughts and actions, helping us avoid impulsive behaviours that are inappropriate, costly or dangerous. In recent years, evidence has emerged that training in behavioural tasks that promote response inhibition or avoidance of specific stimuli can enhance cognitive control, reducing overeating and alcohol consumption. Despite the promising nature of cognitive control training (CCT), we know little about which CCT methods are most effective, how individual differences determine training outcomes, whether CCT produces benefits for real-life behaviour, and how CCT alters – and is determined by – the structure and function of the brain. My aim is to discover what works in CCT and how the effects of training relate to neurophysiology. Subproject 1 will be the largest ever trial on the effectiveness of different CCT methods for achieving weight loss, recruiting 36,000 participants worldwide to complete an internet-based training programme via the Guardian. This study will reveal, with high statistical power, which CCT methods are the most effective and which individual differences are most important for producing real-life benefits. Subproject 2 will investigate how CCT influences neurobiology, and how individual differences in neurobiology influence CCT outcomes. In Subproject 2a, I will focus on theoretically predicted changes to GABAergic systems in prefrontal and motor cortex, and I will test the effect of GABAergic brain stimulation on training outcomes. In Subproject 2b, I will use concurrent brain stimulation (TMS) and brain imaging (fMRI) to test how CCT alters top-down coupling between prefrontal cortex and remote regions that mediate reward and emotion. I will also study how CCT alters, and is altered by, white matter microstructure. This project promises to advance understanding of the causal determinants and moderators of CCT, with implications for its suitability as a clinical adjunct in addiction therapy and behaviour change.
Summary
Cognitive control regulates our thoughts and actions, helping us avoid impulsive behaviours that are inappropriate, costly or dangerous. In recent years, evidence has emerged that training in behavioural tasks that promote response inhibition or avoidance of specific stimuli can enhance cognitive control, reducing overeating and alcohol consumption. Despite the promising nature of cognitive control training (CCT), we know little about which CCT methods are most effective, how individual differences determine training outcomes, whether CCT produces benefits for real-life behaviour, and how CCT alters – and is determined by – the structure and function of the brain. My aim is to discover what works in CCT and how the effects of training relate to neurophysiology. Subproject 1 will be the largest ever trial on the effectiveness of different CCT methods for achieving weight loss, recruiting 36,000 participants worldwide to complete an internet-based training programme via the Guardian. This study will reveal, with high statistical power, which CCT methods are the most effective and which individual differences are most important for producing real-life benefits. Subproject 2 will investigate how CCT influences neurobiology, and how individual differences in neurobiology influence CCT outcomes. In Subproject 2a, I will focus on theoretically predicted changes to GABAergic systems in prefrontal and motor cortex, and I will test the effect of GABAergic brain stimulation on training outcomes. In Subproject 2b, I will use concurrent brain stimulation (TMS) and brain imaging (fMRI) to test how CCT alters top-down coupling between prefrontal cortex and remote regions that mediate reward and emotion. I will also study how CCT alters, and is altered by, white matter microstructure. This project promises to advance understanding of the causal determinants and moderators of CCT, with implications for its suitability as a clinical adjunct in addiction therapy and behaviour change.
Max ERC Funding
1 998 305 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-11-01, End date: 2020-10-31
Project acronym CIVILWARS
Project Social Dynamics of Civil Wars
Researcher (PI) Gilles DORRONSORO
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE PARIS I PANTHEON-SORBONNE
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2014-ADG
Summary Each year, civil wars cause hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees, ecological disruptions, regional instability. These conflicts encompass many players and their effects are felt not only at the regional level but also within Western societies (refugees, terrorism, sectarian tensions).
Despite this, no systematic comparison of civil wars have been conducted using a qualitative method. Social scientists are struggling to understand these breakdowns of the social order, which are fertile from a theoretical perspective because they de-trivialize the social functioning. In civil war, the partial or total institutional collapse marks the end of the (imperfect) monopoly of the state with regards to violence and justice, challenges the social and ethnic hierarchies and also provokes fluctuation of the economic and social capital.
Accordingly, we will address three questions. First, the sudden and non-anticipated reconfiguration of modes of accumulation and conversion of capitals and the relationship between social fields. Next, the formation of competing institutions by politico-military movements involved in the construction of an alternative political order. Finally, individual adaptations to risks and uncertainty affecting the ability of actors to anticipate the consequences of their actions and reassess their own values and engagement.
The implementation of this program of comparative sociology of civil wars will draw on extensive fieldwork. This requires an adapted methodology for researchers faced with unpredictable situations, where quantitative methods fall short. Prosopography, semi- or unstructured interviews and participant observation are therefore prioritised. The creation of an interdisciplinary team of sociologists, political scientists and anthropologists will be able to carry out research based on thick description, following 25 years of experience by the PI in collecting data and supervising researchers in areas afflicted by civi
Summary
Each year, civil wars cause hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees, ecological disruptions, regional instability. These conflicts encompass many players and their effects are felt not only at the regional level but also within Western societies (refugees, terrorism, sectarian tensions).
Despite this, no systematic comparison of civil wars have been conducted using a qualitative method. Social scientists are struggling to understand these breakdowns of the social order, which are fertile from a theoretical perspective because they de-trivialize the social functioning. In civil war, the partial or total institutional collapse marks the end of the (imperfect) monopoly of the state with regards to violence and justice, challenges the social and ethnic hierarchies and also provokes fluctuation of the economic and social capital.
Accordingly, we will address three questions. First, the sudden and non-anticipated reconfiguration of modes of accumulation and conversion of capitals and the relationship between social fields. Next, the formation of competing institutions by politico-military movements involved in the construction of an alternative political order. Finally, individual adaptations to risks and uncertainty affecting the ability of actors to anticipate the consequences of their actions and reassess their own values and engagement.
The implementation of this program of comparative sociology of civil wars will draw on extensive fieldwork. This requires an adapted methodology for researchers faced with unpredictable situations, where quantitative methods fall short. Prosopography, semi- or unstructured interviews and participant observation are therefore prioritised. The creation of an interdisciplinary team of sociologists, political scientists and anthropologists will be able to carry out research based on thick description, following 25 years of experience by the PI in collecting data and supervising researchers in areas afflicted by civi
Max ERC Funding
2 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-01-01, End date: 2020-12-31
Project acronym Code4Memory
Project Neural oscillations - a code for memory
Researcher (PI) Simon Hanslmayr
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary Episodic memory refers to the fascinating human ability to remember past events in a highly associative and information rich way. But how are these memories coded in human brains? Any mechanism accounting for episodic memory must accomplish at least two functions: to build novel associations, and to represent the information constituting the memory. Neural oscillations, regulating the synchrony of neural assemblies, are ideally suited to accomplish these two functions, but in opposing ways. On the one hand, neurophysiological work suggests that increased synchrony strengthens synaptic connections and thus forms the basis for associative memory. Neurocomputational work, on the other hand, suggests that decreased synchrony is necessary to flexibly express information rich patterns in a neural assembly. Therefore, a conundrum exists as to how oscillations code episodic memory. The aim of this project is to propose and test a new framework that has the potential to reconcile this conflict. The central idea is that synchronization and desynchronization cooperatively code episodic memories, with synchronized activity in the hippocampus in the theta (~4 Hz) and gamma (~ 40-60 Hz) frequency range mediating the building of associations, and neocortical desynchronization in the alpha (~10 Hz) and beta (~15 Hz) frequency range mediating the representation of mnemonic information. Importantly the two modules, with their respective synchronous/asynchronous behaviours, must interact during the formation and retrieval of episodic memories, but how and whether this is the case remains untested to date. I will test these fundamental questions using a multidisciplinary and multi-method approach, including human single cell recordings, neuroimaging, brain stimulation, and computational modelling. The results from these experiments have the potential to reveal the neural code that human episodic memory is based on, which is still one of the biggest mysteries of the human mind.
Summary
Episodic memory refers to the fascinating human ability to remember past events in a highly associative and information rich way. But how are these memories coded in human brains? Any mechanism accounting for episodic memory must accomplish at least two functions: to build novel associations, and to represent the information constituting the memory. Neural oscillations, regulating the synchrony of neural assemblies, are ideally suited to accomplish these two functions, but in opposing ways. On the one hand, neurophysiological work suggests that increased synchrony strengthens synaptic connections and thus forms the basis for associative memory. Neurocomputational work, on the other hand, suggests that decreased synchrony is necessary to flexibly express information rich patterns in a neural assembly. Therefore, a conundrum exists as to how oscillations code episodic memory. The aim of this project is to propose and test a new framework that has the potential to reconcile this conflict. The central idea is that synchronization and desynchronization cooperatively code episodic memories, with synchronized activity in the hippocampus in the theta (~4 Hz) and gamma (~ 40-60 Hz) frequency range mediating the building of associations, and neocortical desynchronization in the alpha (~10 Hz) and beta (~15 Hz) frequency range mediating the representation of mnemonic information. Importantly the two modules, with their respective synchronous/asynchronous behaviours, must interact during the formation and retrieval of episodic memories, but how and whether this is the case remains untested to date. I will test these fundamental questions using a multidisciplinary and multi-method approach, including human single cell recordings, neuroimaging, brain stimulation, and computational modelling. The results from these experiments have the potential to reveal the neural code that human episodic memory is based on, which is still one of the biggest mysteries of the human mind.
Max ERC Funding
1 897 751 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-10-01, End date: 2021-09-30
Project acronym CogSoCoAGE
Project Tracking the cognitive basis of social communication across the life-span
Researcher (PI) Heather Ferguson
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF KENT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2014-STG
Summary A vital part of successful everyday social interaction is the ability to infer information about others (e.g. their emotions, visual perspective, and language). Development of these social skills (termed Theory of Mind, ToM) has been linked to improvements in more general cognitive skills, called Executive Functions (EF). However, to date very little is known of how this link varies with advancing age, and no model exists to explain the relationship. Thus, the key aim of the proposed research is to systematically explore the cognitive basis of social communication and how this changes across the life-span. The research will address three complementary objectives: (1) to what degree can variations in ToM ability across the life-span be accounted for by changes in EF skills, (2) how do ToM ability and EF skill change over time in different age groups (using longitudinal methods, i.e. test-retest of the same participants), and (3) can ToM ability be enhanced through training specific EF skills, and how do these training effects differ across the life-span. Contrary to traditional studies of social communication, I will employ an interdisciplinary approach that links theory and practice from cognitive, social, developmental, and clinical (neuro)psychology to study the relationship between ToM and EF across a broad and dynamic age range (10 to 80+ yrs old). I will use cutting-edge combinations of techniques (eye-tracking and EEG) and paradigms, alongside sophisticated statistical methods to track the timecourse of social understanding, and model how it relates to EF and more general cognitive/social skills (eg. IQ, language) within and between individuals. This research will open up new horizons in ToM research by developing an intervention programme to enhance the quality of social communication in older adults (thus improving their mental health and well-being), which has the potential to be applied in other individuals with social communication deficits (eg. autism).
Summary
A vital part of successful everyday social interaction is the ability to infer information about others (e.g. their emotions, visual perspective, and language). Development of these social skills (termed Theory of Mind, ToM) has been linked to improvements in more general cognitive skills, called Executive Functions (EF). However, to date very little is known of how this link varies with advancing age, and no model exists to explain the relationship. Thus, the key aim of the proposed research is to systematically explore the cognitive basis of social communication and how this changes across the life-span. The research will address three complementary objectives: (1) to what degree can variations in ToM ability across the life-span be accounted for by changes in EF skills, (2) how do ToM ability and EF skill change over time in different age groups (using longitudinal methods, i.e. test-retest of the same participants), and (3) can ToM ability be enhanced through training specific EF skills, and how do these training effects differ across the life-span. Contrary to traditional studies of social communication, I will employ an interdisciplinary approach that links theory and practice from cognitive, social, developmental, and clinical (neuro)psychology to study the relationship between ToM and EF across a broad and dynamic age range (10 to 80+ yrs old). I will use cutting-edge combinations of techniques (eye-tracking and EEG) and paradigms, alongside sophisticated statistical methods to track the timecourse of social understanding, and model how it relates to EF and more general cognitive/social skills (eg. IQ, language) within and between individuals. This research will open up new horizons in ToM research by developing an intervention programme to enhance the quality of social communication in older adults (thus improving their mental health and well-being), which has the potential to be applied in other individuals with social communication deficits (eg. autism).
Max ERC Funding
1 488 028 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2020-08-31
