Projects
Competitive research projects

Principal investigator/coordinator: Slavica Robić, Society For Sustainable Development Design (DOOR)Project start: 29.10.2020.
ESF project: METER to a better climate (Network for Education, Transition, Adaptation and Development)
The overall aim of the project “METER to a better climate (Network for Education, Transition, Adaptation and Development)“ is to establish a permanent thematic network of civil society organizations (CSOs), local self-government units and scientific research organizations that will, by being involved in all phases of the public policies development, contribute to the transition into a low-carbon society adapted to climate changes without energy poverty. Through permanent collaboration, new skills and capacities of CSOs for argument-based advocacy will be developed, while scientific research organizations and local self-government units will be empowered regarding the methods of informing and involving the interested public.
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Co-principal investigators / coordinators: Mia Lakatoš and Thomas FarnellCo-principal investigators / coordinators for IDIZ: Iva Odak, Ph.D. and Saša Puzić, Ph.D.Project start: 28.10.2020.
ESF project: Thematic Network Lifelong Education Accessible to All (TEMCO)
The project aims to contribute to solving the non-existence of coordinated and effective agency of civil society organizations (in collaboration with other stakeholders) in shaping the public policies for addressing social inequalities in lifelong education in Croatia. The purpose of the project is to strengthen the capacities of civil society organizations (CSOs) for achieving an effective dialogue with public administration and scientific community in designing and implementing public policies for ensuring a lifelong education accessible to all, thereby creating a precondition for reducing educational inequalities in Croatia.
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Principal investigator for ISRZ: Jelena Matić Bojić, Ph.D.Project start: 28.02.2021.
HAND IN HAND: Empowering teachers across Europe to deal with social, emotional and diversity related career challenges
HAND IN HAND: Empowering teachers across Europe to deal with social, emotional and diversity related career challenges is a policy experimentation project that brings together 11 partners from six countries. The main goal of the project is to support the development of teachers’ social and emotional competencies as well as their diversity awareness (SEDA) in order to equip them for the complexities of working with increasingly diverse classes and to enable them to deal flexibly with new challenges. The project also puts teachers’ well-being at the centre by highlighting how developing SEDA competencies simultaneously fosters self-care for teachers, giving a central role to the voices of teachers.
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Principal investigator: Nikola Petrović, Ph.D.Project start: 24.02.2020.
Integration and disintegration of the European Union: Dynamics of Europeanism and Euroscepticism
The question of EU disintegration is becoming increasingly important and there is a growing number of research on the topic, both theoretical and empirical. In this project, the development and dynamics of Europeanism and Euroscepticism will be compared based on an interdisciplinary approach and by employing innovative comparative methodology and for this purpose seldom employed sociological theories. The ideas of Europeanism and Euroscepticism are crucial for understanding the processes of integration and disintegration in the times of intensive social polarization. As part of the project, we plan to conduct qualitative comparison of carriers of Europeanist and Eurosceptic ideas coming from political and intellectual elites in five Member States from different phases of the EU enlargement process (Germany, UK, Spain, Poland, and Croatia). Further on, we will carry out a quantitative comparison of the way in which historical trauma influenced the success of Eurosceptic parties in all EU Member States. The results should contribute to the comprehension of the influence that different historical experiences had on various visions of European integration in divided European societies. The comparison of political and intellectual actors engaged in building supranational identities and their adversaries, in socialist Yugoslavia and the EU, should provide a deeper understanding of integrational and disintegrational processes in supranational organizations. The research and dissemination activities of the project should contribute to the de-ideologization of European integration and European identity debates within the scientific and broader community.
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Principal investigator: Lana Peternel, Ph.D.Project start: 01.10.2022.
Isolated People and Communities in Slovenia and Croatia – ISOLATION
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought several relevant issues to the forefront, including physical and social isolation, which is the focus of this project. We will use an anthropological approach to explain what it means to be isolated. Through ethnographic studies in isolated social spaces and abandoned areas, we will show how isolation shapes the experiences of insularity and emptiness in urban and rural areas among individuals and communities in Slovenia and Croatia. We will also explore how different modalities of isolation shape experiences, values, and attitudes toward the environment and the future.
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