Civil Society in Turbulent Times: Exploring Connections, Comparison and Capacity-Building in Ireland and Wales

该项目旨在加强爱尔兰和威尔士从事民间社会一般领域工作的社会科学家之间的网络，交流观点，促进合作研究。在这两个地区，重新强调民间社会是一个关键空间，在这个空间中，公民权利和责任、集体行动以及个人与国家之间的关系正在社会、经济和政治变革的背景下重新形成和阐明。爱尔兰和威尔士都面临着一些共同的压力，包括全球化、紧缩政治的遗留问题、个人主义和身份政治的兴起、技术创新及其社会和经济影响，以及最近新冠肺炎疫情的影响。民间社会的其他显著动态在每个国家的独特政治中发展，例如社会自由化和爱尔兰公民参与新机制的实验，以及威尔士作为一个权力下放的政治实体民间社会的不断演变。爱尔兰和威尔士的公民社会都面临着英国退出欧盟（Brexit）的挑战，但来自不同的角度。因此，民间社会在合作研究和知识交流方面具有巨大的潜力，可以审查相似之处和不同之处，比较经验和成果，并综合结果，以促进关于民间社会的社会科学研究的关键概念发展和应用政策学习。共同的文化根源和知识交流和政策转移的历史。爱尔兰和威尔士社会科学家之间的研究合作和对话以及民间社会的参与有着良好的记录，但近几十年来，这些活动主要是通过欧盟方案，包括地平线2020和INTERREG促进的。因此，英国脱欧将需要开发新的合作和参与途径。该项目将有助于建立能力，以促进正在进行和重新建立的研究伙伴关系。汇集爱尔兰和威尔士从事民间社会某些方面工作的社会科学研究人员，以便为今后的合作建立能力和可持续的网络;2.比较和批评公民社会在爱尔兰和威尔士的最新发展，发展的共同和背景因素的理解和交流概念和方法的观点;3。确定进一步合作研究的问题，制定框架和建立团队，以推进适当的资助机会的建议;4.从爱尔兰和威尔士的比较经验中吸取政策教训，并促进两国的治理和民间社会行为者之间交流良好做法，工作方案围绕四个主题展开，这些主题被选为民间社会最近辩论和活动的重要领域，爱尔兰和威尔士都有出色的社会科学研究专门知识。这些是重新谈判边界;农村公民身份;吸引年轻人;以及包容性和协商民主。所有四个主题都将采用共同的形式，包括一个实际讲习班、虚拟后续会议，包括与政策和民间社会利益攸关方举行的会议，从而产生一系列产出，包括摘要文件、政策简报、信息图表、录像、学术和非学术出版物上的文章以及进一步合作研究的建议。该项目的威尔士一方以ESRC WISERD/民间社会中心为基础，该中心将支持网络的长期可持续性。

This projects aims to strengthen networks, share perspectives and facilitate collaborative research between social scientists in Ireland and Wales working on the general area of civil society. In both territories, a renewed emphasis has been focused on civil society as a critical space in which citizen rights and responsibilities, collective action and relations between individuals and the state, are being re-shaped and re-articulated against a background of social, economic and political change. Several pressures are common to both Ireland and Wales, including globalization, the legacies of austerity politics, the rise of individualism and identity politics, technological innovations and their social and economic implications, and most recently, the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak. Other notable dynamics in civil society have developed within the distinctive polities of each nation, such as social liberalisation and experimentation with new mechanisms for citizen engagement in Ireland, and the ongoing evolution of civil society with respect to Wales as a devolved political entity. Civil society in both Ireland and Wales faces challenges from the UK's withdrawal from the European Union (Brexit), but from different perspectives. As such, civil society presents rich potential for collaborative research and knowledge exchange, examining parallels and differences, comparing experiences and outcomes, and synthesizing results to contribute both to critical conceptual development of social science research on civil society and to applied policy learning.Ireland and Wales have a strong affinity as close geographical neighbours with broadly comparable populations, shared cultural roots and an history of intellectual exchange and policy transfer. There is a good record of research collaboration and dialogue between social scientists in Ireland and Wales, as well as civil society engagement, however in recent decades such activities have primarily been facilitated through EU programmes, including Horizon 2020 and INTERREG. Brexit will therefore require new avenues for collaboration and engagement to be developed. The project will help to build capacity for ongoing and renewed research partnership.The project accordingly has four objectives:1. To bring together social science researchers in Ireland and Wales working on selected aspects of civil society in order to build capacity and sustainable networks for future collaboration;2. To compare and critique recent developments in civil society in Ireland and Wales, to develop understanding of shared and contextual factors and exchange conceptual and methodological perspectives;3. To identify questions for further collaborative research, develop frameworks and build teams to take forward proposals for appropriate funding opportunities;4. To draw lessons for policy from the comparative experiences of Ireland and Wales and facilitate the sharing of good practice between governance and civil society actors in both nations.The work programme is structured around four themes that have been selected as notable areas of recent debate and activity in civil society in which there is excellent social science research expertise in both Ireland and Wales. These are renegotiating borders; rural citizenship; engaging young people; and inclusive and deliberative democracy. All four themes will follow a common format involving a physical workshop, virtual follow-up meetings, including one with policy and civil society stakeholders, leading to a range of outputs including summary papers, policy briefings, infographics, a video and articles in academic and non-academic publications, as well as proposals for further collaborative research. The Welsh side of the project is anchored in the ESRC WISERD/Civil Society Centre, which will support the longer-term sustainability of the networks.