How, and under what conditions, do civil society actors engage in interactions that foster or break cohesion? The initiative’s aim is to investigate cohesion as driven by, and constantly negotiated in social interaction. It considers cohesion not just as a normative ideal, but as a property of social relations and interactions across multiple scales and modalities, unfolding in face-to-face encounters, groups, and society at large. Our team will develop a new conflict and interaction-based theory of cohesion in contemporary society, integrating perspectives from the social sciences, humanities, and computer science, as well as from partners in civil society and politics.

The joint project of researchers from Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Technische Universität Berlin is funded by the Berlin University Alliance Grand Challenges: Exploration Projects Social Cohesion initiative.