Solidarity in Diversity (SOLiDi)

Over the last decade, liberal democracies in Europe have been shaken to their core by the rise of national populisms. This puts strong pressure on all forms of solidarity, especially as they cross ethnic-cultural boundaries. The increasingly successful capture of the notion of solidarity by radical right, anti-liberal democratic forces is testimony to this. The challenge for European democracies is to identify the conditions under which solidarities in diversity can be nurtured. To address this urgent challenge, the European Training Network “Solidarity in Diversity” (SOLiDi) develops a training and research program that is focused on how to generate solidarities across cultural boundaries, taking the proximity of citizens with different ethnic-cultural backgrounds in specific places and the practices they engage in as starting point. Building on the strengths of the interculturalist paradigm, SOLiDi will originally contribute with an intersectional understanding of how place-based solidarity practices are shaped by and can work around entrenched social inequalities and unequal power relations. To that end, SOLiDi brings together a group of international scholars from sociology, geography and educational science and a wide range of non-academic partners that are active in different sectors. SOLiDi will train 15 early stage researchers in relevant theories, research methods and ethics and paradigms of social change such as public pedagogy and policy and organisational change to study practices of place-based solidarities in diversity in different geographical, policy and organisational contexts. The aim is to articulate a new vision on solidarity adapted to superdiverse societies and to better equip professionals and organisations with adequate and innovative tools for facilitating solidarity in diversity. SOLiDi aims are in line with SDG10 “Reduced Inequalities” and Societal Challenge 6 ‘Europe in a changing world - Inclusive, innovative and reflective societies’.