Human sciences and practice tackle societal challenges - From social isolation to polarized climate debate

17.11.22 l Latest news

Five combined practice and research projects will create solutions and new knowledge to tackle current societal challenges. From children in care, young people with autism, residents of residential facilities to staff shortages in elder care and gaps in the climate debate. The projects will receive grants totalling DKK 27.3 million from VELUX FONDEN’s HUMpraxis programme.

VELUX FONDEN aims to advance Denmark’s democratic society on an informed, inclusive and sustainable basis.

“The focal point of the HUMpraxis programme is to create new knowledge and concrete solutions in relation to current societal and environmental challenges,” says Henrik Tronier, Head of Programme for VELUX FONDEN’s Humanities research.

“The thinking behind the programme is that effective changes and solutions here are best achieved if they are developed in a close, interacting and equal collaboration between professional practitioners and researchers in the humanities. In addition to the specific project grants, we have taken the initiative of establishing a network with other actors who want to promote broad capacity building in research-practice collaboration as a way to solve current societal challenges.”

Four of this year’s five HUMpraxis projects focus on social sustainability for people in socially vulnerable positions and will help to support their democratic involvement and participation in societal communities. The fifth project will help strengthen citizen involvement in the Danish climate debate.

The application process

VELUX FONDEN has received a total of 68 expressions of interest for this year’s HUMpraxis notice. The five awarded projects have been selected from the 13 projects that were invited to submit a full application on the basis of their expressions of interest. These projects were eligible to receive project maturation funds of up to DKK 100,000, so that they have, among other things, been able to free up time from the practice participants for the development of the application.

From elder care to children in care

One of this year’s projects stems from the massive recruitment problems in municipal elderly care and seeks to establish what is needed to increase access to working communities in elderly care for citizens who find it difficult to gain a foothold in the labour market. Another of the projects will test how teaching esports can motivate young people with autism to complete educational courses and develop skills that can support them in the transition to adult life. And a third project examines the interaction between staff and residents in residential facilities in order to better equip practitioners to have trust-building conversations with citizens and contribute to basic research into trust.

Project 'SUPERVISED CONTACT: SuppOrt and sustainable development in vUlnerable childrens everyday Life (SOUL)' must contribute to ensuring that contact between children in care and their biological parents benefits the child. Maria Appel Nissen, Professor, Department of Sociology and Social Work at Aalborg University, is head of research on the project:

“We lack both Danish and international research knowledge about contact for children placed outside the home. There is knowledge and experience in the practical work with togetherness, but it has not been translated into research-based methods that put the child’s voice, perspective and everyday life at the centre of the quality of the interaction. The researchers and working professionals are therefore necessary for each other and work together in the project to lift practice for the benefit of the child’s well-being and development.”

Maria Appel Nissen emphasises that even though children are placed outside the home for good reasons, their relationship with their biological parents is important – even if it is limited, vulnerable and conflictive:

“A child placed outside the home needs to make sense of and have a sustainable narrative about the placement and their relationship with their biological parents. This has an impact on their well-being and development in childhood, adolescence and the transition to adulthood. Our project will contribute to ensuring that the professionals and adults in the child’s everyday life have an increased focus on parent-children togetherness and supporting the important societal task of reducing exposure in the lives of children placed in care.”

Bridging gaps in the climate debate

In the project, 'CLIMATE-PART', practice partners and researchers will bridge the gap between the political desire to involve citizens in climate policy and the way many citizens engage with the climate in their everyday lives through, for example, activism, communities of action, etc. Together with the Danish Board of Technology and the Climate Movement, researchers at CBS will develop new methods for citizen involvement based on citizens’ self-organised and everyday climate participation:

“The practice collaboration will be a space of enquiry to understand and learn from the conflicts in recent years that have called into question the way the state and municipalities understand and practice climate involvement. Together, we have identified a need to become directly involved in the contrasts and conflicts that can arise between citizens who are deeply engaged in climate policy and municipalities’ tools and strategies for inclusion. At the forefront, the research presents this as a conflict between passionate and self-organised versus more rational and facilitated forms of participation and strategies,” says Head of Research Professor Robin Holt from CBS, adding that in the project they will investigate what drives citizens’ climate-engaged demands to be involved and suggest how these requirements can be integrated into new tools for involvement:

“We will disseminate the learning that arises through the collaboration, among other things, through a laboratory for debate on and the development of new methods for climate participation, drawing on the Danish Board of Technology and the Climate Movement’s experience with experimental formats for political dialogue such as living labs, podcasts and theatre.”

The five projects: 

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