Funds

The Institute of Psychology JU and Trier University research funds support this project.

Researchers

Co-Researchers: Małgorzata Kossowska, Eva Walther, Paulina Szwed

Goal of the project

Solidarity is essential to the functioning of democracy in Europe. It is the glue that allows people, groups, and societies to function harmoniously and together. It provides the basis for social stability. Although the idea of solidarity has a long intellectual and political history in Europe, solidarity has come under renewed intense scrutiny in the last decade due to crises: financial, migration, related to the Covid-19 virus pandemic, and now the war in Ukraine. Discussions on solidarity are usually conducted from a social and political science perspective. Less often do researchers reflect on its psychological underpinnings. Our project focuses on the dynamics of the psychological processes that shape solidarity and solidarity actions. However, these processes are framed by culturally shaped understandings of what solidarity is, cultural experiences of solidarity, and culturally distinct ways of acting in solidarity. Therefore, in our project, although we focus on basic and universally experienced mental processes, we nevertheless investigate their unique character in countries with a distinct history of solidarity behaviour, i.e., Poland and Germany.