Climate, Inequality, and Democratic Action: The Force of Political Emotions (CIDAPE)

Basic research , Environment , Sociology

2024 - 2027

Provider	European Commision
Programme	Horizon Europe
Project code	101132327
Participants	Universitat Wien (coordinator), Faculty of Social Sciences Charles University, Metropolitan University Prague, People in Need, Tartu Ulikool, Universitaet Bielefeld, Scuola Normale Superiore, Universiteit Utrecht, Universitetet I Oslo, Institute for Sociology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Universidad Valladolid
Principal investigator	prof. Anna Durnová

CIDAPE is a groundbreaking project at the forefront of research on the complex interplay between citizen engagement, climate change, and social and economic inequalities. At its core lies the recognition that emotions play a fundamental role in political participation and communication. Understanding and responding to citizens’ emotional (re)actions – as set up by CIDAPE’s inquiry – are essential to achieving coordinated, democratic action.

With a focus on the perceived and articulated emotions around climate and inequality, CIDAPE proposes a comprehensive, multi-methods approach and multidisciplinary analysis of the force of political emotions in European politics of climate change. The project’s WPs delve into emotions in the political sphere, media, everyday life, global-local entanglements, social movements, and citizen engagement showing how emotions shape people’s rational argumentation, engagement, and ultimately, who and what they care about.

CIDAPE seeks to uncover the core mechanisms and processes at the heart of political action – at the policy, polity, and politics levels – and proposes participatory tools, policy instruments, and methodological guides to address these challenges. The project emphasizes that the climate crisis provides a unique opportunity to unite citizens across the political spectrum and that the success of coordinated democratic action will require high levels of public trust, strong institutions, and policies that resonate with citizens’ political emotions. the Consortium assembles experienced researchers from political science, sociology, linguistics, communication science, and international relations, and distinguished representatives from civil society across nine European countries. It has a strong dissemination strategy, aiming at diverse citizen groups at local, national, and supranational levels of democratic engagement.