This project aims to understand what kind of social identity change is going on within European societies. For policymaking, the analysis of social identity is highly valuable because the social identity moderates the impact of policies. In particular, the project aims: A) to verify whether the symbolic universes grounding the social identity has undergone a major change within European societies, as a consequence of the socio-economic crisis; B) to draw strategic and methodological implications for policy-making from point A.
This project includes 4 core scientific work packages: a) Multilevel Analysis of the Symbolic Universes, aimed at mapping structurally and developmentally the systems of meaning grounding the social identity; b) Case Studies for policies, aimed at see how different policies have been organized and their impact; c) the results of this analysis will be transformed into abstract criteria, contextualised in 5 different European macro-Regions, discussed with stakeholders; d) finally, the guidelines will be validated in terms of pertinence, effectiveness and the feasibility criteria, through seminars with the stakeholders.
According to a psycho-social conception, to which this Project refers, the impact of policies is never simply a function of their intrinsic characteristics and the contents they propose, but it also depends on how those elements are interpreted by the social actors embedded in their local contexts. This interpretation is grounded and channeled by actors’ social identity, conceived in its turn as based on a stable system of generalised meanings (here called: symbolic universe) that shapes the image actors have of themselves and their relation with the social environment.
In policy-making, the analysis of the symbolic universes grounding the social identity has great importance, and this is particularly true in times of crisis. Indeed, in critical situations, two possible scenarios emerge:
- Scenario 1: social systems are able to assimilate the crisis into their view of reality: the representation of the crisis therefore does not modify the symbolic universes of the social identity, which can serve as the common ground to which policies can be anchored. For the policy-maker this is the scenario of continuity;
- Scenario 2: the crisis reorganizes the way reality is interpreted, modifying the symbolic universes of the social identity. This is the scenario of discontinuity. In such situations, policies to exit the crisis must address such a (dis)rupture.
This Project is based on the hypothesis that the crisis EU Countries are facing is a major one: namely, it has produced a rupture in the symbolic universes of social identity, and therefore in the way actors view themselves and their relationship with the social and institutional world.
