In this project, psychologists, social historians, demographers, philosophers and sociologists work with each other and with civic organizations to generate and integrate insights into how connections between individuals, groups and institutions contribute to new pathways to and forms of social cohesion.
The consortium SOCION addresses a pressing challenge of our time: fragmentation in societies. Social cohesion is ‘society’s fabric’ and is key to sustainable societies and citizens’ well-being. However, it is increasingly undermined by the erosion of and polarization between communities, factions and groups.
The ethics group at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam will host and supervise 8 positions in total between 2026 and 2036 – 6 PhD students and 2 postdocs –focusing on responsibility questions regarding social cohesion.
The first PhD projects
Structural injustice and social cohesion
This project examines how societies should address structural injustice without damaging the social relations required for collective action. Building on theories of structural injustice and moral responsibility, it investigates who ought to bear forward-looking responsibilities for unjust social structures and how accountability for meeting such responsibilities can be exercised without generating backlash or fragmentation. Empirical work plays a supporting role, using experimental studies to test how different responsibility assignments affect cooperation under conditions of inequality.
A lack of trust in other parties can lead to a breakdown in shared climate effort. The core question of the project is: does the (perceived) climate inaction of powerful actors – governments and corporations – excuse individual citizens from their own responsibilities? This project studies the issue of climate responsibility from an interdisciplinary perspective. It analyses normative arguments regarding fairness and autonomy between actors with unequal power. Furthermore, it compares these arguments against empirical data on how Dutch citizens perceive the shifting responsibilities between themselves, the state and corporations.