SoVE

Social trust as a prerequisite for social cohesion in Europe

Trust is an indispensable foundation of social cohesion. The joint project SoVE is dedicated to the relationships of trust between European populations, as these open up deeper insights into the preconditions, forms and limits of European cohesion, and research into this topic can reveal possibilities for strengthening these relationships of trust.

The project sets itself three goals. First, it aims to determine how much people in Europe trust each other ('horizontal' social trust). In addition, it must be clarified whether this social trust is also related to political trust in other member countries and the institutions of the EU ('horizontal' and 'vertical' political trust). Secondly, the social, cultural and political factors that shape, promote or inhibit transnational social trust are to be identified. And thirdly, proposals and recommendations for action are to be developed and discussed with addressees from academia, politics and civil society.

The project work includes research and practice-oriented modules that aim at a close coupling of research, practice reflection and knowledge transfer. The research methodology is qualitatively oriented. Problem-centred interviews and group discussions are used as a form of data collection and interpretative procedures of text analysis. The research design is comparative and will include field research in Germany, Poland and Italy in order to be able to include horizons of experience from different countries in the analyses.

The project, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of the "Cohesion in Europe" programme, is based on close cooperation between two partners (the Chair of European Political Sociology at the University of Siegen and European Alternatives Berlin), whose previous work has already focused intensively on the research and practice-related aspects of the topic.