Objective
MAGMA takes up a simple, urgent and understudied question: how can powerful people defend democracy? Institutional design alone does not suffice; implementing democratic values is always at risk, from bureaucratic drift (the ‘banality of evil’) and from anti-democratic currents. Today, the latter, colloquially MxGA (‘Make-X-Great-Again’), is coupling with new mass-communication technologies to erode safeguards, prompting EU-level responses. As its acronym signals, MAGMA searches for hidden resources that can help democracy maintain a firmer grasp vis-à-vis MxGA.
The project examines what hinders and what enables elite central-state officials – i.e. top-tier civil servants and political representatives – to implement the ideals of freedom, equity and solidarity by exercising power with decency: i.e. restraint, fairness and compassion. It extends the ethnography of the state by connecting it with the anthropology of the good, anthropologies of resistance and phronetic social science. Rather than cataloguing failure, it is a hopeful, resource-seeking enquiry into the conditions and capabilities of those in power, a realm poorly understood despite its structural weight.
The research is anchored in Roma health inclusion in Slovakia, pairing the Fellow’s long-term, trusted access to senior decision-makers with a high-stakes EU test of democracy implementation that too often fails, especially in the given region. The methods combine ethnographic interviews with directed auto-ethnography, moving from conceptual groundwork to fieldwork, leading to an explanatory framework. A follow-up, non-academic placement will probe translation.
MAGMA’s pertinence lies in centring the understudied moral agency of elite officials, tackling a high-stakes EU inclusion agenda and delivering cues for fostering institutional decency under intensifying pressures. It also marks a career inflection, consolidating the Fellow’s move from applied medical anthropology to the ethnography of power.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences sociology governance
- social sciences political sciences government systems democracy
- social sciences sociology anthropology
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
11000 Praha 1
Czechia
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.