Interdisciplinary Research
Towards a New Fabric of Society
SOCION is a research consortium building on the SCOOP program. Bridging psychology, history, demography, philosophy, and sociology, we investigate how shared values, social mechanisms, and changing institutions shape the fabric of society.
The challenge
Social cohesion – the 'fabric of society' that harnesses societal sustainability and wellbeing of citizens – faces escalating threats from community erosion and polarization.
Current knowledge
Current scholarship on social cohesion has identified basic mechanisms that connect individuals, groups, or institutions. However, more complex cross-level analyses, integrating mechanisms at individual-, group-, and institutional levels simultaneously, are lacking. Consequently, very little is known about the dynamics of, and interplay between, horizontal and vertical ties creating cohesion.
Our Approach
This is problematic, because social cohesion only increases when the strengthening of specific connections does not unravel other ties in the social fabric. Our breakthrough approach addresses these more complex interactions among and between horizontal and vertical ties, providing frontier knowledge to weave a stronger fabric of society. SOCION's scientific breakthrough is to identify the intricate mechanisms.
