Project acronym ALREG
Project Analysing Learning in Regulatory Governance
Researcher (PI) Claudio Radaelli
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary This four-year interdisciplinary project addresses the question what has been learned through the use of better regulation ? Better regulation is a flagship policy on the Lisbon agenda for growth and jobs. Its aims are to provide new governance architectures for law-making, to increase the competitiveness of the regulatory environment, and to secure wide social legitimacy for multi-level systems of rules. Whilst most of the research has looked at how better regulation is changing, this project will produce findings on what has changed because of better regulation. Theoretically, the project will use (and significantly improve on) theories of policy learning. Empirically, it will cover Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, the UK and the EU including multi-level analysis and analysis by sector of regulation. Methodologically, the project will draw on comparative analysis of types of learning, experiments with regulatory policy-makers in six countries and the European Commission, large-n analysis of impact assessments, backward-mapping of legislation (to appraise the role played by better regulation in the formulation or laws in the UK and the EU), meta-analysis of case-studies and co-production of knowledge with better regulation officers. Dissemination will target both stakeholders (i.e., policy officers, civil society organizations, and business federations) and academic conferences in political science, law, and risk analysis, with a major research monograph to be completed in year 4 and a final interdisciplinary conference.
Summary
This four-year interdisciplinary project addresses the question what has been learned through the use of better regulation ? Better regulation is a flagship policy on the Lisbon agenda for growth and jobs. Its aims are to provide new governance architectures for law-making, to increase the competitiveness of the regulatory environment, and to secure wide social legitimacy for multi-level systems of rules. Whilst most of the research has looked at how better regulation is changing, this project will produce findings on what has changed because of better regulation. Theoretically, the project will use (and significantly improve on) theories of policy learning. Empirically, it will cover Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, the UK and the EU including multi-level analysis and analysis by sector of regulation. Methodologically, the project will draw on comparative analysis of types of learning, experiments with regulatory policy-makers in six countries and the European Commission, large-n analysis of impact assessments, backward-mapping of legislation (to appraise the role played by better regulation in the formulation or laws in the UK and the EU), meta-analysis of case-studies and co-production of knowledge with better regulation officers. Dissemination will target both stakeholders (i.e., policy officers, civil society organizations, and business federations) and academic conferences in political science, law, and risk analysis, with a major research monograph to be completed in year 4 and a final interdisciplinary conference.
Max ERC Funding
948 448 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-09-01, End date: 2013-09-30
Project acronym BRIO
Project Bounded Rationality in Industrial Organization
Researcher (PI) Ran Spiegler
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH1, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary "Economists' modern understanding of the functioning of markets is based on the behavioral assumption of individual rationality. Market agents are assumed to hold well-defined preferences and have perfect ability to draw Bayesian inferences in accordance with correct knowledge of the market model and market equilibrium. This research proposal is based on the premise that bounded rationality on the part of consumers is potentially a major source of market friction. My objective is to develop general theoretical tools to investigate this intuition, and to examine whether these tools can be insightfully applied to realistic market settings. So far, the literature on the subject has progressed as a sequence of specific models that capture one aspect of consumer psychology at a time. The challenge is to synthesize and generalize these models into flexible theoretical frameworks for modelling market interaction between profit-maximizing firms and boundedly rational consumers. Hopefully, various aspects of consumer psychology can be embedded into these frameworks, so that analytic results can be stated in terms of general, abstract properties of consumer behavior, rather than in terms of specific psychological effects. In turn, this general analysis is expected to lead to novel applications. Here are some of the general questions that I hope to address. Can we view certain aspects of firms' pricing and marketing strategies as responses to consumers' bounded rationality? To what extent are boundedly rational consumers vulnerable to exploitation by firms? Does competition protect them from exploitation? Does interaction between firms and boundedly rational consumers give rise to inefficiencies, and how are these affected by competition? What is the impact of various regulatory interventions in this context? Do market forces lead firms to ""educate"" or ""debias"" boundedly rational consumers? Does greater consumer rationality imply more competitive industry profits?"
Summary
"Economists' modern understanding of the functioning of markets is based on the behavioral assumption of individual rationality. Market agents are assumed to hold well-defined preferences and have perfect ability to draw Bayesian inferences in accordance with correct knowledge of the market model and market equilibrium. This research proposal is based on the premise that bounded rationality on the part of consumers is potentially a major source of market friction. My objective is to develop general theoretical tools to investigate this intuition, and to examine whether these tools can be insightfully applied to realistic market settings. So far, the literature on the subject has progressed as a sequence of specific models that capture one aspect of consumer psychology at a time. The challenge is to synthesize and generalize these models into flexible theoretical frameworks for modelling market interaction between profit-maximizing firms and boundedly rational consumers. Hopefully, various aspects of consumer psychology can be embedded into these frameworks, so that analytic results can be stated in terms of general, abstract properties of consumer behavior, rather than in terms of specific psychological effects. In turn, this general analysis is expected to lead to novel applications. Here are some of the general questions that I hope to address. Can we view certain aspects of firms' pricing and marketing strategies as responses to consumers' bounded rationality? To what extent are boundedly rational consumers vulnerable to exploitation by firms? Does competition protect them from exploitation? Does interaction between firms and boundedly rational consumers give rise to inefficiencies, and how are these affected by competition? What is the impact of various regulatory interventions in this context? Do market forces lead firms to ""educate"" or ""debias"" boundedly rational consumers? Does greater consumer rationality imply more competitive industry profits?"
Max ERC Funding
1 098 637 €
Duration
Start date: 2008-11-01, End date: 2014-10-31
Project acronym CITSEE
Project The Europeanisation of Citizenship in the Successor States of the Former Yugoslavia
Researcher (PI) Josephine Shaw
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary CITSEE is a comparative and contextualised study of the citizenship regimes of the seven successor states of the former Yugoslavia (SFRY) in their broader European context. It focuses on the relationship between how these regimes have developed after the disintegration of SFRY and the processes of re-integration occurring in the context of the enlargement of the European Union applied in the region. It makes use of the varied statuses under EU law of the SFRY successor states, of which only Slovenia is so far a Member State. The processes at the heart of the study include the effects of previous and prospective enlargements of the EU and the broader stabilisation and association processes. CITSEE uses methods which look at legal and institutional change in its broader political context and applies the broad approach of constitutional ethnography. It has national case studies and thematic case studies of key issues which have a transnational dimension, including the status of residents of the former SFRY Republics resident in other Republics at the moment of independence, dual and multiple nationality, the granting or denial of political rights for resident non-nationals and non-resident nationals, the status of minorities such as the Roma, gender issues arising in a citizenship context, and the impact of citizenship concepts on free movement and travel across borders. While CITSEE s objectives are not normative in nature, and are not intended to supply answers as to best or worst practices in relation to citizenship regimes, or to evaluate the impact of Europeanisation as negative or positive, none the less such an evaluative study is likely to be of interest not only to researchers, but also to NGOs and to policy-makers in the region and in the EU and other international institutions because it fills in many gaps in our current knowledge and provides improved evidence on the basis of which policies may be developed in the future.
Summary
CITSEE is a comparative and contextualised study of the citizenship regimes of the seven successor states of the former Yugoslavia (SFRY) in their broader European context. It focuses on the relationship between how these regimes have developed after the disintegration of SFRY and the processes of re-integration occurring in the context of the enlargement of the European Union applied in the region. It makes use of the varied statuses under EU law of the SFRY successor states, of which only Slovenia is so far a Member State. The processes at the heart of the study include the effects of previous and prospective enlargements of the EU and the broader stabilisation and association processes. CITSEE uses methods which look at legal and institutional change in its broader political context and applies the broad approach of constitutional ethnography. It has national case studies and thematic case studies of key issues which have a transnational dimension, including the status of residents of the former SFRY Republics resident in other Republics at the moment of independence, dual and multiple nationality, the granting or denial of political rights for resident non-nationals and non-resident nationals, the status of minorities such as the Roma, gender issues arising in a citizenship context, and the impact of citizenship concepts on free movement and travel across borders. While CITSEE s objectives are not normative in nature, and are not intended to supply answers as to best or worst practices in relation to citizenship regimes, or to evaluate the impact of Europeanisation as negative or positive, none the less such an evaluative study is likely to be of interest not only to researchers, but also to NGOs and to policy-makers in the region and in the EU and other international institutions because it fills in many gaps in our current knowledge and provides improved evidence on the basis of which policies may be developed in the future.
Max ERC Funding
2 240 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-04-01, End date: 2014-12-31
Project acronym CONANX
Project Consumer culture in an age of anxiety: political and moral economies of food
Researcher (PI) Peter Jackson
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH3, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary Food safety and security are high priority issues throughout Europe at present, the subject of intense government concern, public interest, media speculation and academic scrutiny. With few exceptions, academic research on food has been fragmented with too little interaction between food scientists, health researchers and social scientists. This application builds on the success of a recently completed research programme (Changing Families, Changing Food, 2005-8) which brought together an inter-disciplinary team of over 40 researchers from the food, health and social sciences to address the complex relationships between families and food which lie at the heart of current concerns about food safety and public health. The current proposal aims to take forward the findings of that programme regarding the socially embedded nature of contemporary food choice and to make a step change in our understanding of contemporary consumer anxiety through a focused and concerted programme of research on the political and moral economies of food. The project focuses on consumer anxieties about food at a range of geographic scales, from the global scale of international food markets to the domestic scale of individual households. By taking a whole chain approach -- examining food production and consumption at all points along the chain from farm to fork -- the findings of our research will enable a major advance in our understanding of contemporary anxieties around food, with tangible effects on public health (including the reduction of obesity, diabetes and coronary heart disease).
Summary
Food safety and security are high priority issues throughout Europe at present, the subject of intense government concern, public interest, media speculation and academic scrutiny. With few exceptions, academic research on food has been fragmented with too little interaction between food scientists, health researchers and social scientists. This application builds on the success of a recently completed research programme (Changing Families, Changing Food, 2005-8) which brought together an inter-disciplinary team of over 40 researchers from the food, health and social sciences to address the complex relationships between families and food which lie at the heart of current concerns about food safety and public health. The current proposal aims to take forward the findings of that programme regarding the socially embedded nature of contemporary food choice and to make a step change in our understanding of contemporary consumer anxiety through a focused and concerted programme of research on the political and moral economies of food. The project focuses on consumer anxieties about food at a range of geographic scales, from the global scale of international food markets to the domestic scale of individual households. By taking a whole chain approach -- examining food production and consumption at all points along the chain from farm to fork -- the findings of our research will enable a major advance in our understanding of contemporary anxieties around food, with tangible effects on public health (including the reduction of obesity, diabetes and coronary heart disease).
Max ERC Funding
1 684 460 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-01-01, End date: 2012-12-31
Project acronym ELITES08
Project Culturally Composite Elites, Regime Changes and Social Crises in Multi-Ethnic and Multi-Confessional Eastern Europe. (The Carpathian Basin and the Baltics in Comparison - cc. 1900-1950)
Researcher (PI) Gyozo István Karády
Host Institution (HI) KOZEP-EUROPAI EGYETEM
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH6, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary The project is multi-disciplinary by character. It focuses upon socio-historical processes of the transformation and 'circulation' of educated and ruling elites in several uniquely composite (both multi-ethnic and multi-confessional) East European regional or national societies, having experienced a number of radical changes of social and political regime as well as state souvereignty in the first half of the 20th century. The historical scope of the study extends from post-feudalism to communism. Societies involved comprise Hungary, Slovakia, Transylvania, Voivodina in the Carpathian Basin, Latvia and Estonia in the Baltics. The study draws upon sociological survey methods applied to historically successive elite brackets in form of exhaustive or quasi-exhaustive computerized prosopographical data banks, based on standardized individual biographies of elite members (as permitted by mostly archival sources to be exploited). The main targets would include secondary school graduates, students and graduates of higher education, the main intellectual professions (like doctors and lawyers.), the political power elites as well as 'reputational elites' - those cited in biographical dictionaries. The information fed into our data banks help to clarify thanks to various procedures of multi-variate statistical schemes the contrasting socio-cultural selection and recruitment of elite members, their educational path from primary to higher education, their professional career, intellectual creativity as well as socio-political standing and orientation. This is the first time that large region- or country-wide elite clusters are submitted to systematic socio-historical analyses, covering simultaneously all or most markets of activity and self-assertion of educated clusters in a vast international and comparative perspective related to culturally composite societal formations.
Summary
The project is multi-disciplinary by character. It focuses upon socio-historical processes of the transformation and 'circulation' of educated and ruling elites in several uniquely composite (both multi-ethnic and multi-confessional) East European regional or national societies, having experienced a number of radical changes of social and political regime as well as state souvereignty in the first half of the 20th century. The historical scope of the study extends from post-feudalism to communism. Societies involved comprise Hungary, Slovakia, Transylvania, Voivodina in the Carpathian Basin, Latvia and Estonia in the Baltics. The study draws upon sociological survey methods applied to historically successive elite brackets in form of exhaustive or quasi-exhaustive computerized prosopographical data banks, based on standardized individual biographies of elite members (as permitted by mostly archival sources to be exploited). The main targets would include secondary school graduates, students and graduates of higher education, the main intellectual professions (like doctors and lawyers.), the political power elites as well as 'reputational elites' - those cited in biographical dictionaries. The information fed into our data banks help to clarify thanks to various procedures of multi-variate statistical schemes the contrasting socio-cultural selection and recruitment of elite members, their educational path from primary to higher education, their professional career, intellectual creativity as well as socio-political standing and orientation. This is the first time that large region- or country-wide elite clusters are submitted to systematic socio-historical analyses, covering simultaneously all or most markets of activity and self-assertion of educated clusters in a vast international and comparative perspective related to culturally composite societal formations.
Max ERC Funding
771 628 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-01-01, End date: 2012-03-31
Project acronym EMOTIONS
Project The social and cultural construction of emotions: The Greek paradigm
Researcher (PI) Angelos Chaniotis
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH6, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary Emotions influence social relations; consequently, they are socially relevant, subject to scrutiny, judgment, and normative intervention. The manifestation, perception and treatment of emotions are subject to social interventions and to the influence of cultural change. Emotions in the Classical world have been primarily studied in the light of their representation in literature and art. Such studies have provided important insights; yet, they are based on works primarily created in a few major urban centres, almost exclusively by educated men of a higher status. This project is based on an analysis of documentary sources (inscriptions and papyri, c. 800 BC-c. 500 AD). Although they provide abundant, diverse, and representative evidence, they have never been studied in connection with this subject. As compared to literature and art, these sources represent a wide range of social strata and age-classes, originate in both genders, and are widely disseminated over time and space. These sources will be analysed both diachronically (history of particular emotions) and synchronically (manifestations of emotions in defined historical contexts). Selected literary sources and archaeological material will also be taken into consideration. The project pursues the following objectives: to contribute to a more reliable, nuanced, and comprehensive history of emotions in the Greek world; to increase awareness of the importance of emotions in Classical studies; to contribute to the transdisciplinary study of emotions through the presentation of paradigms from Classical antiquity; to enhance the dialogue between historical, social, and natural sciences; and to make documentary sources accessible to scholars working on the history of emotions and, more generally, on the history of mentality.
Summary
Emotions influence social relations; consequently, they are socially relevant, subject to scrutiny, judgment, and normative intervention. The manifestation, perception and treatment of emotions are subject to social interventions and to the influence of cultural change. Emotions in the Classical world have been primarily studied in the light of their representation in literature and art. Such studies have provided important insights; yet, they are based on works primarily created in a few major urban centres, almost exclusively by educated men of a higher status. This project is based on an analysis of documentary sources (inscriptions and papyri, c. 800 BC-c. 500 AD). Although they provide abundant, diverse, and representative evidence, they have never been studied in connection with this subject. As compared to literature and art, these sources represent a wide range of social strata and age-classes, originate in both genders, and are widely disseminated over time and space. These sources will be analysed both diachronically (history of particular emotions) and synchronically (manifestations of emotions in defined historical contexts). Selected literary sources and archaeological material will also be taken into consideration. The project pursues the following objectives: to contribute to a more reliable, nuanced, and comprehensive history of emotions in the Greek world; to increase awareness of the importance of emotions in Classical studies; to contribute to the transdisciplinary study of emotions through the presentation of paradigms from Classical antiquity; to enhance the dialogue between historical, social, and natural sciences; and to make documentary sources accessible to scholars working on the history of emotions and, more generally, on the history of mentality.
Max ERC Funding
1 593 945 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-01-01, End date: 2013-12-31
Project acronym GHG
Project The Transformation of Global Health Governance: Competing Worldviews and Crises
Researcher (PI) Colin John Mcinnes
Host Institution (HI) ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary Globalisation has changed health conditions worldwide, affecting the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions. While historically many health issues have readily crossed borders (e.g. Black Plague), the intensification and extensification of contemporary globalisation processes has required new forms of governance to address changed global health needs. How do we collectively protect and promote health in an increasingly globalised world? This challenge has opened up a contested space known as global health governance (GHG) where the stakes are high but where different perspectives compete and contradict. It is also a poorly understood space. This programme aims to significantly advance our understanding of this space and the competition within it. It builds on a small body of existing literature to which the two applicants have already made important contributions, but represents a step change in two important respects. First, existing analyses have been limited to single approaches or perspectives. This programme represents the first sustained attempt at a comparative analysis incorporating a variety of perspectives and health issues. Given that the space is contested, it is only through such an analysis that we can significantly advance our understanding of GHG. Such an approach would represent a major advance on the current state of the art. Second, analysis to date has focused on disease and especially infectious disease. The applicants have been at the forefront of critiquing this approach as overly narrow (for example McInnes and Lee, 2006). This programme addresses infectious disease as one of the key issues in global health governance, but also incorporates non-communicable disease and non-disease based health issues in an explicit attempt to broaden the analysis to cover more fully the space occupied by global health governance.
Summary
Globalisation has changed health conditions worldwide, affecting the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions. While historically many health issues have readily crossed borders (e.g. Black Plague), the intensification and extensification of contemporary globalisation processes has required new forms of governance to address changed global health needs. How do we collectively protect and promote health in an increasingly globalised world? This challenge has opened up a contested space known as global health governance (GHG) where the stakes are high but where different perspectives compete and contradict. It is also a poorly understood space. This programme aims to significantly advance our understanding of this space and the competition within it. It builds on a small body of existing literature to which the two applicants have already made important contributions, but represents a step change in two important respects. First, existing analyses have been limited to single approaches or perspectives. This programme represents the first sustained attempt at a comparative analysis incorporating a variety of perspectives and health issues. Given that the space is contested, it is only through such an analysis that we can significantly advance our understanding of GHG. Such an approach would represent a major advance on the current state of the art. Second, analysis to date has focused on disease and especially infectious disease. The applicants have been at the forefront of critiquing this approach as overly narrow (for example McInnes and Lee, 2006). This programme addresses infectious disease as one of the key issues in global health governance, but also incorporates non-communicable disease and non-disease based health issues in an explicit attempt to broaden the analysis to cover more fully the space occupied by global health governance.
Max ERC Funding
2 349 246 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-01-01, End date: 2013-12-31
Project acronym INTERARCHIVE
Project Interred with their bones - linking soil micromorphology and chemistry to unlock the hidden archive of archaeological human burials
Researcher (PI) Don Reginald Brothwell
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF YORK
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH6, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary It is apparent that soils/sediments immediately associated with buried archaeological human remains contain a valuable unexploited archive of archaeological information with physical and chemical signatures. Thus, excavation of human graves, for cultural reconstruction and to understand archaeological burial practices, aspects of human health and for forensic investigations would benefit significantly from development of a systematic and rigorous scientific approach, allowing maximum information retrieval. We propose a novel framework for sampling and analysis, applying complementary analytical approaches to ongoing burial excavations in 17 sites in Europe, North Africa and Mongolia. We aim to test the combined complementary power of soil micromorphology, inorganic geochemistry and organic chemical analyses to recover cultural and environmental information from historic and archaeological graves, particularly in situations where physical remains can no longer be recognised visually. The analytical techniques will provide information at macro-, micro- and nano-scales, generating complementary data that will enable interpretation of physical remains according to chemical composition (organic and inorganic). The study will enable assessment of preservation potential as a function of soil type and chemistry and permit analysis of fluids movement through the burial environment and their impact on microscopic and chemical signatures. The new interdisciplinary approach that we will develop and validate will provide a protocol for the international archaeological and forensic communities, and sampling schemes for scientific analysis of archaeological/historical burials. The total combination of our results will produce an entirely new richer picture of unseen cultural and biological associations with burials. We expect to deliver a new framework for integrated sampling, analysis and interpretation of grave/burial soils with a comprehensive online searchable database.
Summary
It is apparent that soils/sediments immediately associated with buried archaeological human remains contain a valuable unexploited archive of archaeological information with physical and chemical signatures. Thus, excavation of human graves, for cultural reconstruction and to understand archaeological burial practices, aspects of human health and for forensic investigations would benefit significantly from development of a systematic and rigorous scientific approach, allowing maximum information retrieval. We propose a novel framework for sampling and analysis, applying complementary analytical approaches to ongoing burial excavations in 17 sites in Europe, North Africa and Mongolia. We aim to test the combined complementary power of soil micromorphology, inorganic geochemistry and organic chemical analyses to recover cultural and environmental information from historic and archaeological graves, particularly in situations where physical remains can no longer be recognised visually. The analytical techniques will provide information at macro-, micro- and nano-scales, generating complementary data that will enable interpretation of physical remains according to chemical composition (organic and inorganic). The study will enable assessment of preservation potential as a function of soil type and chemistry and permit analysis of fluids movement through the burial environment and their impact on microscopic and chemical signatures. The new interdisciplinary approach that we will develop and validate will provide a protocol for the international archaeological and forensic communities, and sampling schemes for scientific analysis of archaeological/historical burials. The total combination of our results will produce an entirely new richer picture of unseen cultural and biological associations with burials. We expect to deliver a new framework for integrated sampling, analysis and interpretation of grave/burial soils with a comprehensive online searchable database.
Max ERC Funding
2 481 920 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-04-01, End date: 2015-03-31
Project acronym IPCWPPB
Project Indigeneity in the Contemporary World: Performance, Politics and Belonging
Researcher (PI) Helen Gilbert
Host Institution (HI) ROYAL HOLLOWAY AND BEDFORD NEW COLLEGE
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH5, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary This project explores how indigeneity is expressed and understood in our complex, globalising world. It asks why indigeneity has accumulated immense symbolic and ideological capital in Western societies when indigenous cultures are among the most disenfranchised in modern times, often still struggling for social justice after centuries of colonisation. Specifically, I ask what indigeneity has come to mean in particular places and at key moments, and what kind of cultural, political, ethical and aesthetic issues are negotiated within its canvass. To address these questions, I will examine performance as a vital mode of cultural representation and a dynamic social practice. Performance is interpreted broadly to include not only the performing arts (theatre, film and dance) but also mixed-media work, site-based heritage projects, applied theatre in health education, Olympic pageantry, festival enactments, political protest and cultural displays within tourism ventures. The recent, rapid development of indigenous performance globally, its enthusiastic reception in national and international contexts, and its local significance and value will be studied in depth. I am especially interested in how evolving concepts of indigeneity may contribute to broader understanding of heritage, belonging, social cohesion and mobility in multicultural societies and how cultural values, knowledges and practices are transmitted, through performance, across place and time. The research will be thoroughly interdisciplinary, engaging with current scholarship in history, postcolonial studies, cultural geography, anthropology, environmental studies and performance theory. While the projected fieldwork focuses on regions settled during the great era of European expansionism, notably Australia, the Pacific Islands, the Americas and South Africa, the project is also centrally concerned with the transnational circulation of indigeneity as a highly marketable commodity, particularly in Europe.
Summary
This project explores how indigeneity is expressed and understood in our complex, globalising world. It asks why indigeneity has accumulated immense symbolic and ideological capital in Western societies when indigenous cultures are among the most disenfranchised in modern times, often still struggling for social justice after centuries of colonisation. Specifically, I ask what indigeneity has come to mean in particular places and at key moments, and what kind of cultural, political, ethical and aesthetic issues are negotiated within its canvass. To address these questions, I will examine performance as a vital mode of cultural representation and a dynamic social practice. Performance is interpreted broadly to include not only the performing arts (theatre, film and dance) but also mixed-media work, site-based heritage projects, applied theatre in health education, Olympic pageantry, festival enactments, political protest and cultural displays within tourism ventures. The recent, rapid development of indigenous performance globally, its enthusiastic reception in national and international contexts, and its local significance and value will be studied in depth. I am especially interested in how evolving concepts of indigeneity may contribute to broader understanding of heritage, belonging, social cohesion and mobility in multicultural societies and how cultural values, knowledges and practices are transmitted, through performance, across place and time. The research will be thoroughly interdisciplinary, engaging with current scholarship in history, postcolonial studies, cultural geography, anthropology, environmental studies and performance theory. While the projected fieldwork focuses on regions settled during the great era of European expansionism, notably Australia, the Pacific Islands, the Americas and South Africa, the project is also centrally concerned with the transnational circulation of indigeneity as a highly marketable commodity, particularly in Europe.
Max ERC Funding
2 363 323 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-04-01, End date: 2014-11-30
Project acronym MDCEE
Project Media and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe: Qualities of Democracy, Qualities of Media
Researcher (PI) Jan Zielonka
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary The relationship between democracy and the media in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is poorly understood. Not only have western media models been unhelpful in understanding these transitions but there has also been a notable lack of attention given to media within the transitions literature. This project intends to address this by taking a novel and interdisciplinary approach to this question. The traditional orientation of academic studies to this question is strictly limited to whether media are good or bad for democracy. This rests on the assumptions that both democratic institutions have pre-dated the rise of media and that core qualities of democratic governance exist (i.e. rule of law, political pluralism, freedom of speech and information, etc.). Unfortunately for the countries of CEE, these are problematic assumptions to make. Thus, this project asks: What kind of democracy is needed for media to perform its agreed-upon normative functions? That is, we are interested in the quality of the media as a function of the quality of democracy. The principal investigators are leading academic authorities in the field of European Politics and of Media and Communications. They have expertise in the study of Eastern Europe and experience in managing large interdisciplinary research projects. The Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford, its Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics offer a unique academic and journalistic environment of the highest possible quality for this proposed study. The expected results and outputs will not only help us to understand democracy and the media in the new member states of the European Union but will also be more broadly applicable to the study of the relationship between democracy and the media in other consolidating democracies, including the Balkans, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
Summary
The relationship between democracy and the media in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is poorly understood. Not only have western media models been unhelpful in understanding these transitions but there has also been a notable lack of attention given to media within the transitions literature. This project intends to address this by taking a novel and interdisciplinary approach to this question. The traditional orientation of academic studies to this question is strictly limited to whether media are good or bad for democracy. This rests on the assumptions that both democratic institutions have pre-dated the rise of media and that core qualities of democratic governance exist (i.e. rule of law, political pluralism, freedom of speech and information, etc.). Unfortunately for the countries of CEE, these are problematic assumptions to make. Thus, this project asks: What kind of democracy is needed for media to perform its agreed-upon normative functions? That is, we are interested in the quality of the media as a function of the quality of democracy. The principal investigators are leading academic authorities in the field of European Politics and of Media and Communications. They have expertise in the study of Eastern Europe and experience in managing large interdisciplinary research projects. The Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford, its Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics offer a unique academic and journalistic environment of the highest possible quality for this proposed study. The expected results and outputs will not only help us to understand democracy and the media in the new member states of the European Union but will also be more broadly applicable to the study of the relationship between democracy and the media in other consolidating democracies, including the Balkans, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
Max ERC Funding
2 056 276 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-10-01, End date: 2013-09-30
Project acronym MLAE
Project Money, Liquidity, and the Aggregate Economy
Researcher (PI) John Moore
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH1, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary In the last few years, Professor Nobuhiro Kiyotaki (Princeton) and I have attempted to provide the bare bones of a simple, unified theory of money and liquidity that can be integrated into the rest of macroeconomic theory, staying as close as possible to the standard competitive macroeconomic framework. But there is a lot of work ahead. The bones have little or no flesh. Here are some of the major puzzles that are outstanding. Why is it that small adjustments to nominal interest rates by a central bank appear to have such significant effects on the real economy? Why can there be financial instability, even during periods of monetary stability? What are the deep sources of a financial crisis? Has it to do with contractual incompleteness, such as lack of indexation in debt contracts? What externalities may be at work? Is there scope for intervention, to encourage new forms of financial contract, such as dequity which offer lenders the same control rights as debt but afford the same degree of risk sharing as equity? Through what mechanism do financial crises spread, both across markets and across countries? Does contagion occur through price effects alone (e.g. falls in the values of collateral), or is the primary channel of propagation through chains of debt and default? How and when might monetary policy ameliorate financial crises? And how does this role for a central bank connect to its role of lender of last resort? As new financial instruments emerge that substitute for fiat money, what is the future of central banking? More generally, how should monetary economics tie in with the economics of payment and settlement? Inevitably, it is difficult to prescribe where our research will take us. Not all of these questions will prove amenable to being answered. It may be that some alternative line of enquiry opens up unexpectedly.
Summary
In the last few years, Professor Nobuhiro Kiyotaki (Princeton) and I have attempted to provide the bare bones of a simple, unified theory of money and liquidity that can be integrated into the rest of macroeconomic theory, staying as close as possible to the standard competitive macroeconomic framework. But there is a lot of work ahead. The bones have little or no flesh. Here are some of the major puzzles that are outstanding. Why is it that small adjustments to nominal interest rates by a central bank appear to have such significant effects on the real economy? Why can there be financial instability, even during periods of monetary stability? What are the deep sources of a financial crisis? Has it to do with contractual incompleteness, such as lack of indexation in debt contracts? What externalities may be at work? Is there scope for intervention, to encourage new forms of financial contract, such as dequity which offer lenders the same control rights as debt but afford the same degree of risk sharing as equity? Through what mechanism do financial crises spread, both across markets and across countries? Does contagion occur through price effects alone (e.g. falls in the values of collateral), or is the primary channel of propagation through chains of debt and default? How and when might monetary policy ameliorate financial crises? And how does this role for a central bank connect to its role of lender of last resort? As new financial instruments emerge that substitute for fiat money, what is the future of central banking? More generally, how should monetary economics tie in with the economics of payment and settlement? Inevitably, it is difficult to prescribe where our research will take us. Not all of these questions will prove amenable to being answered. It may be that some alternative line of enquiry opens up unexpectedly.
Max ERC Funding
1 600 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-10-01, End date: 2016-03-31
Project acronym MORPHOLOGY
Project Morphological Complexity: Typology as a Tool for Delineating Cognitive Organization
Researcher (PI) Greville Corbett
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF SURREY
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary Charting the limits of linguistic complexity will open up new perspectives for researching both language and the human mind. We focus on inflectional morphology, which is the systematic manipulation of word forms to express grammatical meaning. As a uniquely linguistic and uniquely human component of communication, morphology stands to reveal otherwise inaccessible aspects of cognition. Morphological systems introduce an extra layer of structure in between meaning and its expression. This layer may operate at cross purposes to functional distinctions, attaining in some languages an astonishing degree of complexity. Such apparently arbitrary distinctions in form (inflection classes, irregularity and similar phenomena) are the particular focus of this project. They are a key resource for understanding mental processes as they represent an unconscious and yet highly structured autonomous system. The project core is a comprehensive typological and historical investigation of morphological complexity (surveying 200 languages), with input from psycholinguistic and computational methodology. Such an interdisciplinary approach has not been attempted before. A deeper understanding of morphological complexity, a component of language which is free of the functional, physiological and sociological constraints that normally shape other linguistic structures, promises to advance both linguistic theory in particular, and the cognitive sciences as a whole.
Summary
Charting the limits of linguistic complexity will open up new perspectives for researching both language and the human mind. We focus on inflectional morphology, which is the systematic manipulation of word forms to express grammatical meaning. As a uniquely linguistic and uniquely human component of communication, morphology stands to reveal otherwise inaccessible aspects of cognition. Morphological systems introduce an extra layer of structure in between meaning and its expression. This layer may operate at cross purposes to functional distinctions, attaining in some languages an astonishing degree of complexity. Such apparently arbitrary distinctions in form (inflection classes, irregularity and similar phenomena) are the particular focus of this project. They are a key resource for understanding mental processes as they represent an unconscious and yet highly structured autonomous system. The project core is a comprehensive typological and historical investigation of morphological complexity (surveying 200 languages), with input from psycholinguistic and computational methodology. Such an interdisciplinary approach has not been attempted before. A deeper understanding of morphological complexity, a component of language which is free of the functional, physiological and sociological constraints that normally shape other linguistic structures, promises to advance both linguistic theory in particular, and the cognitive sciences as a whole.
Max ERC Funding
1 712 538 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-02-01, End date: 2015-01-31
Project acronym NAMSEF
Project Nonparametric and Semiparametric Methods in Economics and Finance
Researcher (PI) Oliver Bruce Linton
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH1, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary This proposal is about developing nonparametric methodology for applications in economics and finance. It is broadly in two parts. The first part is related to my work on separable nonparametric models, which is at the frontier of econometric methodology. I am working on a number of projects that extend the applicability of these methods to problems of current interest. The second part is related to my work on testing stochastic dominance, which is a topic of considerable current interest and considerable scope of application. This work involves several extensions of existing methodology and its application to new problems. Both sets of projects involve theoretical work in terms of defining estimators and test statistics and analyzing their properties. They also involve application of the methodology to simulated and real data. This involves developing efficient computer programmes and running them on state of the art machines. Because the procedures we develop are complicated functions of the data they are very time consuming to implement, especially time consuming to implement well.
Summary
This proposal is about developing nonparametric methodology for applications in economics and finance. It is broadly in two parts. The first part is related to my work on separable nonparametric models, which is at the frontier of econometric methodology. I am working on a number of projects that extend the applicability of these methods to problems of current interest. The second part is related to my work on testing stochastic dominance, which is a topic of considerable current interest and considerable scope of application. This work involves several extensions of existing methodology and its application to new problems. Both sets of projects involve theoretical work in terms of defining estimators and test statistics and analyzing their properties. They also involve application of the methodology to simulated and real data. This involves developing efficient computer programmes and running them on state of the art machines. Because the procedures we develop are complicated functions of the data they are very time consuming to implement, especially time consuming to implement well.
Max ERC Funding
1 200 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-03-01, End date: 2014-02-28
Project acronym NEUROLEX
Project Neurocognitive systems for morpho-lexical analysis: The cross-linguistic foundations for language comprehension
Researcher (PI) William Marslen-Wilson
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary Language comprehension is a fundamentally dynamic process, where incoming speech information interfaces with two markedly different neuro-cognitive processing systems a left lateralised fronto-temporal system that is critical for linguistic processes of morphological and syntactic analysis, and a distributed bi-hemispheric system that supports semantic and pragmatic interpretation. This view of the neurocognitive language system has emerged from interdisciplinary research focusing mainly on English. The research proposed here will take our understanding of these systems to a new level of specificity in terms of the spatio-temporal pattern of different language processing procedures across the brain, while achieving a new level of generality by conducting parallel investigations in three contrasting languages. The first strand (English) will use behavioural and neuro-imaging methods (fMRI, MEG) to analyse the neural networks engaged by different types of morpho-lexical complexity. We will contrast specifically linguistic forms of complexity (derivational and inflectional morphology, argument structure, etc.) with more general sources of complexity reflecting on-line competition between different lexical and phrasal interpretations. Research in English suggests that these engage different processing systems across the two hemispheres. The second strand (Polish) examines the neural dynamics of the same sources of processing complexity in a morphologically much richer language, but sharing with English the same concatenative word-formation mechanisms. The third strand will analyse neural responses to processing complexity in the radically different morpho-lexical context of Arabic, where the fundamental mechanism of word formation is non-concatenative, and where key grammatical morphemes serve multiple linguistic functions. These cross-linguistic neuro-cognitive comparisons will provide important new information about the relationship between language and the brain.
Summary
Language comprehension is a fundamentally dynamic process, where incoming speech information interfaces with two markedly different neuro-cognitive processing systems a left lateralised fronto-temporal system that is critical for linguistic processes of morphological and syntactic analysis, and a distributed bi-hemispheric system that supports semantic and pragmatic interpretation. This view of the neurocognitive language system has emerged from interdisciplinary research focusing mainly on English. The research proposed here will take our understanding of these systems to a new level of specificity in terms of the spatio-temporal pattern of different language processing procedures across the brain, while achieving a new level of generality by conducting parallel investigations in three contrasting languages. The first strand (English) will use behavioural and neuro-imaging methods (fMRI, MEG) to analyse the neural networks engaged by different types of morpho-lexical complexity. We will contrast specifically linguistic forms of complexity (derivational and inflectional morphology, argument structure, etc.) with more general sources of complexity reflecting on-line competition between different lexical and phrasal interpretations. Research in English suggests that these engage different processing systems across the two hemispheres. The second strand (Polish) examines the neural dynamics of the same sources of processing complexity in a morphologically much richer language, but sharing with English the same concatenative word-formation mechanisms. The third strand will analyse neural responses to processing complexity in the radically different morpho-lexical context of Arabic, where the fundamental mechanism of word formation is non-concatenative, and where key grammatical morphemes serve multiple linguistic functions. These cross-linguistic neuro-cognitive comparisons will provide important new information about the relationship between language and the brain.
Max ERC Funding
2 414 558 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-09-01, End date: 2015-08-31
Project acronym RAIELSP
Project Reconstructing Ancient (Biblical) Israel: The Exact and Life Sciences Perspective
Researcher (PI) Israel Finkelstein
Host Institution (HI) TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH6, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary The study of Ancient Israel s (hereafter AI) texts (the Hebrew Bible), material culture and history has been a keystone of European scholarship since the Enlightenment. Biblical exegesis and archaeology contributed impressively to our understanding of AI, yet in certain areas conventional research has reached a stalemate. With very few real-time historical records, with the biblical testimony written a long time after the events described (if not mythical) took place, and with the theological agenda of both the original authors and some modern scholars, reconstructing the world of AI is a complex matter. The exact and life sciences are not restricted by these preconceptions and are able to reveal data not visible to the naked eye. Advances made in the last decade in archaeological science show that this is the wave of the future. The novelty in this proposal is to deploy an arsenal of 10 research tracks from the exact and life sciences in order to better understand AI: A. The time of AI: A1. Radiocarbon: correlating the chronology of AI with neighboring lands. B. The genesis of AI: B1. Human genetics and paleodiet. B2. Geo-archaeology: tracking the subsistence economy of AI. B3. Palynology: relating paleoclimate to settlement oscillations. C. The life of AI: C1. Ceramic petrography: reconstructing trade patterns. C2. Metallurgy: tracking technological advances. D. The mind of AI: D1. Daily mathematics of dimensions: pottery and architecture. D2. Epigraphy: the use of advanced computational methodologies (e.g., artificial intelligence algorithms) in the study of writing in Israel and Judah. E. The identity of AI: E1. Residue analysis of pottery vessels, and- E2. Archaeo-zoology; both aim at elucidating diet, foodways and possibly identity boundaries. This project has the potential to revolutionize the study of AI. Such a broad research plan in the realm of archaeology and the sciences, focused on a single period/theme, has never been conducted anywhere.
Summary
The study of Ancient Israel s (hereafter AI) texts (the Hebrew Bible), material culture and history has been a keystone of European scholarship since the Enlightenment. Biblical exegesis and archaeology contributed impressively to our understanding of AI, yet in certain areas conventional research has reached a stalemate. With very few real-time historical records, with the biblical testimony written a long time after the events described (if not mythical) took place, and with the theological agenda of both the original authors and some modern scholars, reconstructing the world of AI is a complex matter. The exact and life sciences are not restricted by these preconceptions and are able to reveal data not visible to the naked eye. Advances made in the last decade in archaeological science show that this is the wave of the future. The novelty in this proposal is to deploy an arsenal of 10 research tracks from the exact and life sciences in order to better understand AI: A. The time of AI: A1. Radiocarbon: correlating the chronology of AI with neighboring lands. B. The genesis of AI: B1. Human genetics and paleodiet. B2. Geo-archaeology: tracking the subsistence economy of AI. B3. Palynology: relating paleoclimate to settlement oscillations. C. The life of AI: C1. Ceramic petrography: reconstructing trade patterns. C2. Metallurgy: tracking technological advances. D. The mind of AI: D1. Daily mathematics of dimensions: pottery and architecture. D2. Epigraphy: the use of advanced computational methodologies (e.g., artificial intelligence algorithms) in the study of writing in Israel and Judah. E. The identity of AI: E1. Residue analysis of pottery vessels, and- E2. Archaeo-zoology; both aim at elucidating diet, foodways and possibly identity boundaries. This project has the potential to revolutionize the study of AI. Such a broad research plan in the realm of archaeology and the sciences, focused on a single period/theme, has never been conducted anywhere.
Max ERC Funding
2 976 188 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-02-01, End date: 2014-01-31
Project acronym TRANS-NAP
Project Cultural transformations and environmental transitions in North African prehistory
Researcher (PI) Graeme Barker
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH6, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary There is emerging consensus that European human populations, Ancient (Homo erectus) & Modern (H. sapiens), originated in Africa, but the timing, routes & character of their migrations remain obscure. In Europe, the cultural transformations represented by the appearance of cognitively-modern human behaviour c.40000 years ago appear to relate to replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans, & to correlate with abrupt climatic & environmental changes. N Africa may have played a critical role in these events but when, how & why modern humans emerged in this region (which lacks Neanderthals), questions vital for understanding the colonization of Europe, remain unanswered. TRANS-NAP aims to address these questions by a programme of archaeological fieldwork, science-based archaeology & environmental science in NE Libya. One component will be an archaeological & geomorphological survey, & allied palaeoecological studies, across the Gebel Akhdar (Green Mountain) massif from the Mediterranean to the Sahara. The other will be a programme of targeted archaeological excavation combined with palaeoenvironmental studies & fine resolution dating including at the major prehistoric cave of the Haua Fteah, which 1950s excavations & trial work in 2007 have shown represents a unique opportunity for high resolution analysis of changes in climate & environment, & of hominin responses to these, over at least the past 100000 years. The combination of spatial behavioural data & landscape reconstruction from the surveys, & deep time cultural & palaeoenvironmental data from the excavations, will enable TRANS-NAP to reconstruct the strategies developed by Ancient & Modern Humans to utilize a typical N African landscape of Mediterranean littoral, uplands, pre-desert & desert, & to understand how they responded to challenges of profound climatic & environmental change, findings which will have fundamental implications for understanding the development of behavioural modernity in Africa & Europe.
Summary
There is emerging consensus that European human populations, Ancient (Homo erectus) & Modern (H. sapiens), originated in Africa, but the timing, routes & character of their migrations remain obscure. In Europe, the cultural transformations represented by the appearance of cognitively-modern human behaviour c.40000 years ago appear to relate to replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans, & to correlate with abrupt climatic & environmental changes. N Africa may have played a critical role in these events but when, how & why modern humans emerged in this region (which lacks Neanderthals), questions vital for understanding the colonization of Europe, remain unanswered. TRANS-NAP aims to address these questions by a programme of archaeological fieldwork, science-based archaeology & environmental science in NE Libya. One component will be an archaeological & geomorphological survey, & allied palaeoecological studies, across the Gebel Akhdar (Green Mountain) massif from the Mediterranean to the Sahara. The other will be a programme of targeted archaeological excavation combined with palaeoenvironmental studies & fine resolution dating including at the major prehistoric cave of the Haua Fteah, which 1950s excavations & trial work in 2007 have shown represents a unique opportunity for high resolution analysis of changes in climate & environment, & of hominin responses to these, over at least the past 100000 years. The combination of spatial behavioural data & landscape reconstruction from the surveys, & deep time cultural & palaeoenvironmental data from the excavations, will enable TRANS-NAP to reconstruct the strategies developed by Ancient & Modern Humans to utilize a typical N African landscape of Mediterranean littoral, uplands, pre-desert & desert, & to understand how they responded to challenges of profound climatic & environmental change, findings which will have fundamental implications for understanding the development of behavioural modernity in Africa & Europe.
Max ERC Funding
2 000 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-03-01, End date: 2015-02-28
Project acronym URKEW
Project Useful and Reliable Knowledge in Global Histories of Material Progress in the East and the West
Researcher (PI) Patrick Karl O'brien
Host Institution (HI) LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH6, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary This proposal falls in paradigms for historical research in the comparative economic history of long-run global perspective: associated with the scholarship of Max Weber and Marc Bloch. It is focused upon cosmologies and cultures, promoting or restraining the accumulation of useful and reliable knowledge of production in the Orient and the Occident in the early-modern period - from the accession of the Ming Dynasty to the First Industrial Revolution.
Summary
This proposal falls in paradigms for historical research in the comparative economic history of long-run global perspective: associated with the scholarship of Max Weber and Marc Bloch. It is focused upon cosmologies and cultures, promoting or restraining the accumulation of useful and reliable knowledge of production in the Orient and the Occident in the early-modern period - from the accession of the Ming Dynasty to the First Industrial Revolution.
Max ERC Funding
1 497 473 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-06-01, End date: 2013-05-31
