Projects / Programmes
Citizenship and discrimination: intersectional approach to research of social exclusion
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.06.00 |
Humanities |
Culturology |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| S210 |
Social sciences |
Sociology |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 6.04 |
Humanities |
Arts (arts, history of arts, performing arts, music) |
discrimination, intersection, identity, minorities, sexual minorities, religious minorities, ethnic
minorities
Researchers (12)
Organisations (2)
Abstract
Slovenian society was in recent years faced with manifest phenomena of intolerance, discrimination, and exclusion, which are the outcomes of economic crisis and crisis of democracy in general, but also a reflection of a crisis of active citizenship.
Despite the growing research work in fields of social inequality and economic systems, a much broader view is needed to understand today's realities. The proposed project innovatively turns the logic of research. It firstly analyses exclusion at the margins - an intersectional analysis of narrations, policies, and representations through the prism of religious, sexual and ethnic discrimination. Secondly, it applies the results to the research field of citizenship as the status, which should provide full membership in a community.
Research project addresses the issues of social exclusion through an intersectional interaction of discriminatory practices. This way it explores common mechanisms of exclusion, which do not stop at the boundary of individual identity, as it is often represented in the existing research approaches, which are usually articulated as separate projects, missing research dialogue. The proposed project therefore establishes an innovative theoretical and methodological approach that uses the same tools to analyze different forms of exclusion and discrimination, and thus identifies common sources of discriminatory practices. We hypothesize that intolerance, occurring in Slovenian society and wider, has common origins, which are often blurred due to the research of discrimination against individual minority groups in separate research fields. The project therefore establishes a theoretical and methodological dialogue among researchers of these various fields, while the results of the intersectional analysis will contribute to a deeper reflection of discrimination as a phenomenon that is increasingly integrated into the broader civic body.
Our basic thesis is threefold: (1) discrimination of different social minorities is based on the same or similar mechanisms of social exclusion, which are driven by the same interpretive scheme of policies, discourse, and practices of endangerment; (2) the same or similar mechanisms of social exclusion are mutually reinforcing each form of discrimination; therefore the project employs the intersectional perspective; (3) mechanisms of exclusion and discrimination have a significant impact on the wider society in contexts of changing role of nation states in conditions of globalization and Europeanization.
A wide empirical base is devised to address discrimination in an intersectional way, taking into account its wider structural, political and representative aspects. The empirical study includes implementation of mixed focus groups, where interaction between actors of different minorities will contribute significantly in overcoming the one-dimensional understanding of discrimination. It also includes a critical frame analysis (Verloo 2006) of anti-discrimination policies and a critical discourse analysis (Fairclough 2010) of representations of discriminated minorities. The results of the analysis of exclusion at the margins are then applied onto the wider research field on citizenship as the status, which should provide full membership in a community, but which is in the changed conditions of globalization, widening economic exclusion and crisis of the nation-state and global rise of populist (radical) groups, increasingly showing its exclusionary elements.
The proposed project introduces an innovative method of research of discrimination and citizenship, building on novel theoretical models of participation, democracy, and postnational belonging. The main research aim is to theoretically reflect on new models of democratic participation from the perspective of pluralistic religious, political, ethnic and gender identities in the light of identified models of discrimination and exclusion. This way the project upgrades the
Significance for science
The research project is conceived as a dialogue between theories, researchers, and victims of discrimination. The intersectional approach is used to see how concepts, which are used in individual fields of studies (e.g. ethnic studies, gender studies), become a useful theoretical perspective in other fields that also deal with discrimination and intolerance against various identity groups. This will be conceived separately and at the same time in the intersection. The project widens the field of research on social exclusion, as it seeks to establish a new conceptual apparatus, based on the intersectional method, which will address social exclusion, which increasingly affects also the center of modern societies. Project results represent a new contribution in the research of modern citizenship, particularly regarding the questions of inclusion-exclusion.
The key relevance of the project for the development of science is in its innovative methodological approach to the study of discrimination as a research field, where several different circumstances interact. The project thus opens a new space of reflection that is already established in the international environment, while such interdisciplinary research on discrimination it is only beginning to emerge in Slovenia. The project will contribute to the development of Slovenian professional terminology in the field of discrimination and citizenship studies. It will face two fields of research, which usually stand in opposition to each other, since the questions of discrimination are usually conceived as the negative pole of civic inclusion, while the proposed project focuses mainly on the exclusionary aspects of citizenship. Through the integration of project results into the educational process, the renewed conceptual apparatus will also be transferred to the educational field, which is essential for conservation or renewal of the epistemological foundations, since it educates and raises new generations, which will be better equipped to identify and prevent various forms of discrimination and exclusion.
The research project brings a new reflection on current topics of sociological, cultural and political science at a time when the self-evidence of national identity, sovereignty, and multiculturalism are questioned and when dynamic processes of globalization and transnationalization are taking place. In the current situation when the radical populism in Europe and the US is on the rise, the project brings an important contribution to the understanding of the dynamics and mechanisms of exclusion, which spread from the margins to the mainstream society and are becoming a social phenomenon, which is affecting ever-increasing share of modern societies. The project in this sense brings new perspectives, which can in times of social uncertainty reveal new ways of imagining living together and creating both individual and group identities.
Significance for the country
The research project is conceived as a dialogue between theories, researchers, and victims of discrimination. The intersectional approach is used to see how concepts, which are used in individual fields of studies (e.g. ethnic studies, gender studies), become a useful theoretical perspective in other fields that also deal with discrimination and intolerance against various identity groups. This will be conceived separately and at the same time in the intersection. The project widens the field of research on social exclusion, as it seeks to establish a new conceptual apparatus, based on the intersectional method, which will address social exclusion, which increasingly affects also the center of modern societies. Project results represent a new contribution in the research of modern citizenship, particularly regarding the questions of inclusion-exclusion.
The key relevance of the project for the development of science is in its innovative methodological approach to the study of discrimination as a research field, where several different circumstances interact. The project thus opens a new space of reflection that is already established in the international environment, while such interdisciplinary research on discrimination it is only beginning to emerge in Slovenia. The project will contribute to the development of Slovenian professional terminology in the field of discrimination and citizenship studies. It will face two fields of research, which usually stand in opposition to each other, since the questions of discrimination are usually conceived as the negative pole of civic inclusion, while the proposed project focuses mainly on the exclusionary aspects of citizenship. Through the integration of project results into the educational process, the renewed conceptual apparatus will also be transferred to the educational field, which is essential for conservation or renewal of the epistemological foundations, since it educates and raises new generations, which will be better equipped to identify and prevent various forms of discrimination and exclusion.
The research project brings a new reflection on current topics of sociological, cultural and political science at a time when the self-evidence of national identity, sovereignty, and multiculturalism are questioned and when dynamic processes of globalization and transnationalization are taking place. In the current situation when the radical populism in Europe and the US is on the rise, the project brings an important contribution to the understanding of the dynamics and mechanisms of exclusion, which spread from the margins to the mainstream society and are becoming a social phenomenon, which is affecting ever-increasing share of modern societies. The project in this sense brings new perspectives, which can in times of social uncertainty reveal new ways of imagining living together and creating both individual and group identities.
Most important scientific results
Interim report
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Interim report
