The aim of ENCODE is to explore the role of emotions in the interplay of values, identities and behavioral responses to understand the relations between democratic processes and emotions and break the vicious circle of distrust and create new positive narratives, tailored to the emotional needs of EU citizens.
The objectives of ENCODE are:
1.1. To develop and employ an innovative concept and theory of affective pluralization
1.2 To understand how social media are used to reflect people’s emotions and feelings
1.3 To describe potential gaps between biological reactions and verbal responses
1.4 To map the interaction between affective polarization and related values
1.5 To determine the link between emotional responses to the lack of control, uncertainty, distrust and the appeal of populism and conspiracy theories
1.6 To understand the links between emotional responses and adopting different European identities
1.7 To support policy makers at all levels from the European to the local by proposing policymaking strategies and tools (policy briefs, roadmap and guidelines) best tailored to current and future emotions surrounding identities and values
1.8. To carry effective and engaging dissemination, communication and exploitation activities to support the implementation of projects results in Europe across policy makers and other stakeholder group
Drawing on sound theoretical and empirical assumptions, ENCODE will conduct a thorough study of emotions, carried out on different levels, ranging from neurological affective responses (face-tracking research) to statements and personal accounts (in-depth interviews and questionnaires) and behavioral patterns (experiments). The results of will be compared and contrasted with the sentiment analysis of social networking sites employing NLP techniques. The main outcome of the whole study is a new enhanced model of interplay of emotions, values, beliefs and behavioral responses, displaying the results in a cross-country perspective (Poland, Austria, Denmark, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina).
The design of such policies is related to the third ENCODE ambition – to provide innovative policymaking design by applying the citizen science approach. The citizen labs, further validated by Delphi panels and vignette expertise are expected to link citizen narratives to policy solutions. As they are to be further discussed by policymakers, they are expected to close the emotional gaps, by on one hand, giving the voice to citizens, highlighting the experience of the marginalized groups and on the other, challenging the policymakers’ stereotypes. This exchange, framed by the results of ENCODE study, will refurbish the whole ecosystem of emotions in politics and democratic processes and will materialize in the form of the roadmap of implementation and 4 future scenarios.
IDSCS will contribute with their expertise to conduct all the research activities and workshops in North Macedonia, as well as to develop theoretical and conceptual frameworks. The project results will be used to inform policy makers in North Macedonia and advocate for better formulation of policies and political communication of decision-makers, that accommodates understandings of emotional responses to political changes.
Consortium members: ASM – Market Research and Analysis Center, University of Wroclaw, University of Copenhagen, University of Vienna, Re-Imagine Europa, PredictBy, European Center for Populism Studies, Center for the Study of Democracy, Institute for Democracy, University of Sarajevo
Period of implementation: June 2024 – May 2027
Donor: European Commission
Funding: 82,031 EUR