The Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives (EuroStorie) is funded by the Research Council of Finland and is hosted by the University of Helsinki. EuroStorie seeks to critically investigate the foundations of the European narrative about a shared heritage of law, values and ideals. The purpose is to examine the crisis through the development of conflicting narratives of Europe in 20th century thinking and its impact in contemporary policies and popular perceptions.
The Centre of Excellence has three subprojects that all contribute to questions of the European crises through various approaches.
1) Law and uses of the past
2) Discovering the limits of reason - Europe and the crisis of universalism
3) Migration and the narratives of Europe as an "Area of freedom, security and justice"
INDEED project is a 36-months EU-funded project aiming to strengthen the knowledge, capabilities and skills of PVE/CVE and De-radicalisation first-line practitioners and policy makers in designing, planning, implementing, and evaluating initiatives in the field, based on an evidence-based approach. The consortium includes 19 partners in 15 countries.
VORTEX is a EU Doctoral Networks project which focuses on advancing research on radicalization. It has three key areas: the internal dynamics of radical groups and individuals, the social context of the radicalization processes, and measures of preventing and countering violent extremism. The project is led by the Malmö University. Research conducted at the CES focuses on the development of counterterrorism policies and their consequences in Europe.
The research project Law, Governance and Space: Questioning the Foundations of the Republican Tradition (SpaceLaw) is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) and hosted by the University of Helsinki. The project poses the questions: Why there were no offices in ancient Rome? How is it possible that it nevertheless forms the model for the Western administrative state? The project seeks to investigate this neglected issue with the spatial analysis of power relations and meanings. The significance of these issues extends much beyond this: the development of administrative space in the European context amounts to nothing less than the emergence of the concept of public.
The European Research Council (ERC) funded research project “Gender, party politics and democracy in Europe: A study of European Parliament’s party groups” (EUGenDem) provides a systematic analysis of the gendered policies and practices of the political groups in the European Parliament (EP). The five-year (2018-2023) research project is funded by the ERC Consolidator Grant. EUGenDem addresses crucial questions about the gendered and gendering policies and practices of European party politics. Overall, the project team has collected a dataset consisting of 140 interviews with MEPs, staff, and the secretariat of the European Parliament; 200 pages of ethnographic observations; as well as of European Parliament's and political group statutes, programs, and policy documents. The research and analysis conducted during the project has led to over 70 scientific publications so far.
Co-creating Inclusive Intersectional Democratic Spaces across Europe (CCINDLE) is a EU Horizon Europe comparative research project exploring how citizens, activists and policymakers might re-invigorate engagement with democratic institutions by co-creating solutions to the crisis of democracy in Europe. Political contexts analyzed are: Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, UK and the EU. We co-create knowledge on 1. anti-gender campaigns and how they challenge democracy; 2. futures of society envisioned in feminist theories and how they relate to democracy in Europe with respect to intersectional justice, inclusion, and participation; 3. feminist movement and institutional responses to anti-gender and other anti-democratic forces.
Co-principal investigators for this project are Mieke Verloo (Radboud), Akwugo Emejulu (Warwick), Elena Pavan (Trento), Andrea Krizsan (Central European University), Petra Meier (Antwerp), Conny Roggeband (Amsterdam), Johanna Kantola (Helsinki), Emanuela Lombardo (Madrid Complutense), Marta Rawluzsko (Warsaw) and Elzbieta Korolczuk (Södertörn).
The project ”Politicized Loneliness: Hatred, Violence, and Experiences of Loneliness Online”, founded by Emil Aaltonen Foundation, aims to understand loneliness, which motivates political, hostile activities. The project takes a multidisciplinary approach to politicized loneliness, combining political science and loneliness research. It sheds light on the significance of loneliness in understanding the crisis of democracy and authoritarianism.
The project investigates the world of aggressive experience and the correlation between loneliness and political hostility. The project poses questions such as: “In what type of communal environment does loneliness become associated with racism, misogyny, or the glorification of violence? Does the experience of loneliness strengthen ways of thinking that are particularly compatible with, for example, conspiracy theories and extremist ideologies?” Along with the research, the project aims to stimulate social discussion in order to prevent radicalization.
Deportations are taking place on an unprecedented level from countries of the so-called Global North. Yet there is lack of long-term understanding of deportations as state practice. The Research Council of Finland -funded project Gatekeeping the Nation (GATE, 2022-2026) undertakes the first systematic long-term analysis of Finnish deportation policy. We utilize previously unused archival sources, administrative data and interviews to examine the changing laws, practices, and actors – including deportable migrants themselves – involved in the forced removals by the Finnish state, from the Cold War to present-day Europeanized borderscapes.
The project "Finland and Theories of Political Violence" (FIPO) sets to find out how theories of political violence manage to explain the low levels of political violence in the post-war Finland and what kind of factors contribute to resilience to political violence. By doing this, it sets to contribute to the debates within the research on Finnish society, history and politics. The main goal of the project, however, is to further the theoretical understanding of political violence.
The focus is on the periods of transnational waves of political violence in post-war Europe. The most important of the recent waves are the New Left violence (from the late 1960s until late 1980s), Radical right violence (1990s) and Salafi-Jihadist violence (2000s, still ongoing).