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:
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:
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.