Diversity serves as a foundation for sustainable ecological, cultural, and social systems. However, it also presents challenges to policies and solutions that rely on cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and religious uniformity. As internationalisation and globalisation continue to evolve, we see new patterns of both harmony and conflict. At the same time, we face a global crisis of decreasing biodiversity, and the loss of minorities and heritage languages.
New research is needed for the recognition and governance of diversity, to avoid environmental and social degradation. Research on cultural, religious, and linguistic diversity is key to revitalise the normative base of democratic societies built on the principles of equality and non-discrimination. It can also help reform institutional practices and structures that reproduce inequality and discrimination.
The thematic area of cultural and biological diversity investigates changes in cultural – linguistic, educational and religious – systems in terms of individuals and their identities, and what similarities are found between these and ecological systems, especially in urban settings. The more specific research themes of this area are:
Research under theme Changing worldviews and learning environments examines how social identities overlap with religious, ethnic, gender and other identities, with attention to i) the role of religious diversity in a secularising society, focusing on Islamic and urban theology, and the experiences of inclusion and wellbeing of people in the margins in urban contexts; ii) inclusivity and equal access opportunities to high-quality education and supportive learning environments, focusing on how current educational system structures, educational policies, curricula, and resources take into account the growing diversity of learners, including minority and pluri-language users, and intersectionalities.
Pluralism in ecological and linguistic systems theme addresses the complexities of linguistic and ecological diversity to better understand how intensifying and emerging forms of diversity affect the interactions and practices of humans and other forms of life, and how society and the environment work as interconnected systems. We will examine i) both the excess and loss of diversity as a threat to functioning ecologies and modern society, including the loss of biodiversity in urban environments, impacting system integrity and function, but also human (biopsychosocial) health and wellbeing; ii) new typologies that recognise types of linguistic diversity from a comparative global-local perspective, in relation to the functional goals different types of multilingualism serve in society.
The second thematic area, Political and environmental diversity, focuses on diversity from the viewpoint of social structures, institutional practices, and agency. It includes exploring how biological species adapt to changing environments in a way that parallels the challenges communities face with integration, assimilation and identity loss, for instance related to language policies. The main research themes of this area are:
The lack of adequate measures to address the diversification of society will profoundly transform the legitimacy of the Nordic welfare state and labour market models, public education systems and notions of citizenship. Under Challenges in social structures theme, we will examine the systematic challenges that arise from increasing diversity and the systems of legal governance, including i) challenges to minorities and migrants’ access to employment, housing, public services and care, feeding societal inequalities and mistrust towards public institutions; ii) processes and practices leading to discrimination and structural racism, including the legal framework governing media pluralism and freedom of expression.
Participation, inclusion and empowerment theme is dedicated to understanding inclusion and the equitable treatment of minorities, essential for social justice, self-empowerment and nonconflictual ways of living together. Key areas of research include i) the role of linguistic diversity and heritage languages in access to democratic participation and in practices of inclusion and agency; ii) the status of minorities and the disabled across various age groups in the labour market, including the recognition of diversity as a resource for economic and social wellbeing, e.g. care for aging populations.
Environmental degradation in cities and the benefits of their green spaces are not homogeneously distributed. Under Social and environmental adaptation theme, we will deepen our understanding of i) the differing benefits of urban biodiversity to urban populations, including immigrants, minorities, religious groups and people of lower socio-economic status; ii) the roles of urban bio- and linguistic diversity in the sense of place and belonging in diverse urban communities, and of institutional policies in reducing social anxieties and promoting justice, trust and long-term sustainability.
Understanding the complex questions of diversity in a deeply interconnected world demands methodological innovation, which DIVSOL promotes by aligning the insights of qualitative and quantitative methods with the enhanced power of the computational analysis of massive datasets. DIVSOL and two other profile building actions – Sustainable Wellbeing Across Lifespan (SWAN) and Systems of Food and Drug Security (fooDrug) – will set up a joint AI Virtual Lab to support the use of artificial intelligence in scientific research. This emphasis also reinforces our community's commitment to research integrity and ethical use of AI.