Repairing Sociality, Safeguarding Democracy: Transatlantic North-South Narratives and Practices of Deep Equality (RSSD)

Lead-PI: Christi van der Westhuizen, Nelson Mandela University

Consortium: Lori Beaman, University of Ottawa; Bhekithemba Mngomezulu, Nelson Mandela University; Paula Montero, Universidade de Sao Paulo; Thabisani Ndlovu, Walter Sisulu University; Lella Nouri, Swansea University.

Funders: FAPESP, NRF, SSHRC, UKRI

 

Summary:

Valuable research has been undertaken on current social polarization, weaponization of difference and democratic backsliding. Less common are investigations into everyday navigation and negotiation of diversity in creating conditions for mutual understanding and social recognition. This project will develop local case studies and collaborate in cross-country comparative analyses to understand how local practices of deep equality may provide new frameworks for strengthening democracy, ensuring inclusive governance, and improving trust. The project will craft a conceptual framework incorporative of both South and North epistemologies to enable mutual learnings about alternative practices that repair sociality towards greater trust and inclusion, despite the erosion of confidence in political representation and the legal system of producing justice. The investigation extends to digital practices to understand how digital and social media play a role in practices of deep equality particularly by exploring agency, community and sociality in online discourses related to each local context and through a separate case study which focuses specifically on social media activism in the UK.