Centre for Public Education and Pedagogy

The MSCA European Training Network “Solidarity in Diversity” (SOLiDi), coordinated by prof. Stijn Oosterlynck, University of Antwerp, and including the Centre for Public Education and Pedagogy at Maynooth University as beneficiary passed the first phase of selection with a score of 96.6% and has been invited by EU to start the grant preparation. Prof. Sharon Todd and Prof. Gert Biesta will be the scientists in charge for Maynooth University, joining a network of 10 beneficiaries and 23 partner organizations from eight European countries.
 
The network will develop a training and research program 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. In particular, 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. In the context of the rise of national populisms with an increasingly successful capture of the notion of solidarity by radical right and anti-liberal democratic forces,  SOLiDi challenge for European democracies is to identify the conditions under which solidarities in diversity can be nurtured.
 
It is anticipated that the project will start in January 2021, with a full-time PhD student joining the Centre for Public Education and Pedagogy in the 2021-2021 academic year. The Centre will also lead in providing project-wide training on questions concerning public pedagogy.