ERC 2024 Action grant, Horizon Europe, European Commisssion
101170655; 09/01/2025 – 08/31/2030
Principal Investigator: Martin Fotta
Team members: Natálie Najmanová
Existing scholarship has highlighted disparities in the adverse consequences of armed conflicts, forced displacement, and peacebuilding on Romani communities, which feed on and exacerbate prior patterns of marginalisation, racism, and dispossession. Yet there is a notable lack of longitudinal research on lived Romani experiences of war, forced displacement, and post-war reconstruction—despite the presence of Romani people in every European and Middle Eastern country that has witnessed war over the last three decades. Virtually nothing is known about how Roma have maintained families, kinship networks, and community cohesion, or about the traces left by wars within Romani social life. The project provides the first systematic and comparative study of its kind, grounded in the observation that extant ‘peacetime’ research evinces kinship as the prime mechanism through which Roma create spaces of liveability and fashion social belonging in a way that is not overdetermined by their unequal relationships with non-Roma. Through immersive research with Roma from Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, and former Yugoslavia, this innovative ethnographic project investigates the transformations of Romani kinship in the wake of conflicts. It explores how kinship practices and relations are mobilised as a social resource for enduring the effects of wars, as well as how wars become inscribed in the kinship form. By examining everyday acts of care, changes in relatedness networks, and Romani generational thought, the project offers a unique approach for understanding the social dynamics of war and its aftermath from the viewpoint of a vulnerable, dispersed, and territorially non-contiguous ethnic minority, going beyond the analysis of majority realities. By analysing the ‘plasticity’ of kinship and its constraints within the extreme context of wars, the project’s broader aim is to advance our understandings of how social vulnerability, adaptation, and socio-cultural continuity are interwoven.

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 101170655).

Memory and Populism from Below (MEMPOP)

ERC 2022 Starting Grant, Horizont Europe, European Commisssion

101076092; 1.1.2024 – 31.12.2028

Principal Investigator: Johana Wyss D.Phil.

Team members: Franz Graf, Ioana Brunet, Diána Vonnák, Laura Mafizzoli, Astrea Nikolovska, Jitka Králová

Political polarisation with rising support for populist movements is one of the most pressing global issues that we are facing worldwide. Yet, it is usually Central and Eastern Europe that are singled out for examples of unprecedented resurgences of populism, illiberal nationalism, and increasingly authoritarian forms of government. However, considering how divergent the so-called populist regimes of Central and Eastern Europe are, as well as the types of mnemonic populism they employ, ‘populism’ has become a label that is as empty as it is fashionable. To scrutinise the notion of Central and Eastern European populism and provide a novel perspective on this phenomenon, the project proposes a radical shift from the two units of analysis that are taken for granted in populism studies: the temporal unit that presumes Central and Eastern European populism is a post-socialist consequence; and the geographical unit that essentialises contemporary nation-states of Central and Eastern Europe. By adopting a bottom-up approach and investigating the everyday mnemonic practices and populist sentiments of ordinary people living in the transnational borderland periphery, namely, Burgenland, Galicia, Istria, and Silesia, this pioneering study moves away from the elite, top-down investigation of populism as well as the tendency to treat the state as the primary unit of analysis. Instead, it shifts the centre of focus to the postimperial transnational borderlands where, in fact, both antagonistic memories and support for populist movements are arguably the strongest.

www.mempop.org

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 101076092).

Veterinarization of Europe? Hunting for Wild Boar Futures in the Time of African Swine Fever (BOAR)
ERC Consolidator Grant, Horizon 2020, European Commission
Grant agreement ID: 866350; 2020-2026

Principal Investigator: Luděk Brož
Team members: Aníbal G. Arregui, Erica von Essen, Thorsten Gieser, Paul G. Keil, Laura J. Kuen, Kieran O’Mahony, Garry Marvin, Marianna Szczygielska, Virginie Vaté,  André Thiemann

African Swine Fever is a fatal porcine virus infecting Europe’s prolific wild boar. Human conflict with wild boar has intensified over fears that exposure to a diseased population will contaminate domestic pig farms. Veterinarians play an important role in European State management of the viral threat. The BOAR project is an EU-funded, anthropological study of veterinary knowledge and practice beyond animal health, examining how veterinary science increasingly mediates human-wildlife interactions, and serves to structure and govern society through biosecurity measures. As self-appointed stewards of wild boar, recreational hunting communities are key subjects for researching veterinary interventions. The BOAR project will deliver innovative insights for the anthropology of hunting, the future of human-porcine relations, and the emerging subfield of 'veterinary anthropology'.

This project proposes a collaborative, ethnographic investigation of the relationship between three understudied subjects in anthropology: veterinary medicine, European hunting and wild boars. In recent decades, the wild boar has proliferated, (re)conquering the natural, rural and urban landscapes of Europe, and increasingly clashing with human practices and worlds. Classified as a game animal, the boar is primarily killed and managed by recreational hunters. Yet, hunters are proving incapable of stemming the tide of this intelligent, adaptable being, an interspecies relation that challenges hunting’s value and legitimacy in European society. This tension has amplified with the arrival of African Swine Fever (ASF) to the continent: a fatal virus that travels between wild boar and domestic pig, forest and farm, and threatens to infect and ruin the pig industry. In the name of biosecurity, and informed by veterinary knowledge, some States have intervened and conducted mass culls, erected dividing fences across Schengen space, or instituted no-go zones. During this crisis we witnessed how veterinary medicine’s role can extend beyond mediating human-animal relations, and work to structure and govern human lives in general. At the intersection of boars, hunting, ASF and veterinary medicine, this project has two main objectives: first, to examine how European hunting and porcine futures are intertwined, and the role of veterinarians in shaping these futures, and; second, through human-boar relations, study how society is becoming increasingly veterinarized and thus shape the conceptual and methodological development of the emerging field of veterinary anthropology. This project will further contribute to anthropology by opening a novel empirical and theoretical niche for the anthropology of hunting, and experiment with ethnography as a tool of engagement with near futures. The emerging and uncertain impact of ASF in Europe is an excellent moment to conduct such a project.

http://www.wildboar.cz/

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 866350).

Times of Crisis, Times in Crisis: The Temporalities of Europe in Polycrisis (TiCToC)

Call: Crisis – Perspectives from the Humanities; The Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA) Network in collaboration with CHANSE (Collaboration of Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe)

CHANSE; 03/2025-02/2028

Coordinator: University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Partners: University of St Andrews, United Kingdom; University of Bergen, Norway; Znanstvenoraziskovalni center Slovenske akademije znanosti in umetnosti (ZRC SAZU), Slovenia; Central European University, Austria; Etnologický ústav AV ČR, v. v. i.

Project participants from the Institute: Jana Nosková (hlavní řešitelka za EÚ), Kateřina Králová, Michal Pavlásek, Kateřina Fuksová
 
Abstract: Europe is in polycrisis: Climate, economy, migration, democracy, armed conflict and academia are pertinent fields where crisis abounds. This project explores the temporal registers of crisis, the vernacular articulation of life in turmoil, and the cultural dynamics expressed in crisis contexts. The central contention is the need to unravel what we term ‘times of crisis’. Centered in anthropology and working across art, history, ethnology and philosophy, this project critically places time at the heart of crisis work, asking what it means to live in times of crisis, how crisis changes over time, and how crisis is perceived in hindsight. Critically, what distinguishes ‘crisis time’ from ‘normal time’? Framing current conditions as ‘crisis’ or projecting time itself as being ‘in crisis’ are prevailing sensibilities in much discourse about polycrisis in Europe and beyond. This project offers empirical, methodological and theoretical apparatuses to better analyze what such crisis attentiveness effects, interrogating what the diverse yet now common category of ‘crisis’ accomplishes. Offering ethnographic takes on philosophical questions concerning ‘times of crisis’, each work package addresses three temporal pins – past, present, and future. The work packages focus on individual nodes of polycrisis in three regional settings: Eastern Europe (war and conflict), Mediterranean (economy), Scandinavia (migration), with shared research questions designed to aid comparison and comprehension. Empirically, the project highlights the diverse ways times of crisis are inhabited, methodologically it shows how times of crisis are expressed in art and literature, and theoretically it poses socio-philosophical questions concerning the temporal coordinates of crisis. Beyond the academy, activities will engage partners at the National Museum of Denmark, EthnoFest Athens, Open Society Archives Budapest, Post Bellum NGO Prague, and the Slovene Ethnological Association.

https://chanse.org/tictoc/

https://heranet.info/projects/crisis-perspectives-from-the-humanities/tictoc-times-in-crisis-times-of-crisis-the-temporalities-of-europe-in-polycrisis/

Network for forest by-products charcoal, resin, tar, potash (EU-PoTaRCh)

COST Action, COST: European Cooperation in Science & Technology

CA22155

Start date: October 2023

Principal investigator: Poznań University of Life Sciences – Prof Magdalena ZBOROWSKA

Partners: Etnologický ústav AV ČR, Botanický ústav AV ČR

Project participants from the Institute: Dr. Jiří Woitsch (člen CA22155 Management Committee a WG1 co-coordinator)

EU-PoTaRCh-establishes a network for the past, present and future of use of major non-timber forest raw materials and products in Europe. Whilst it will focus on forest by-products mainly Potash Tar Resin Charcoal (PoTaRCh)–as representatives of traditional forest exploitation heritage, it will touch upon other forest by-products (tannins, pitches). The scholarly vision is to enlighten the relevance of these products in history, especially their role in industrialization. The goal is to identify and assess production changes and their social and environmental impacts on sustainable development, and based on their heritage, to draw lessons for the future. The Action will support stakeholders who know these products and are interested in them, as they use them in the production, education, and promotion of heritage. Due to the participation of stakeholders with significantly different activity profiles (museums, state forests, associations, etc.), hence high diversity of needs will have to be answered by this Action.

The Action will put emphasis on ITCs participation, which have a rich history of producing PoTaRCh, and also special attention to Gender balance mobilizing in particular women to act as leaders of WG, STMS and workshop organizers. The Action will help to find ways to sustainable forest use and transfer knowledge to better methods and products in the bioeconomy.

https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA22155/#tabs+Name:Description

Project flyer here.

COST Action, COST: European Cooperation in Science & Technology

CA21132

Start date: Autumn 2022

Principal investigator: CEVA Animal Health – Dr. Gwenaëlle Dauphin

Partners: Etnologický ústav AV ČR

Project participants from the Institute: Dr. Luděk Brož

Swine influenza is a highly contagious respiratory disease in pigs caused by influenza A viruses (swIAV) which leads to production losses. The intensification of pork production systems and free livestock movement across borders fosters the spread of the virus in Europe. New variants, some with zoonotic potential, constantly emerge. Recent human pandemics have highlighted the zoonotic and reverse zoonotic potential of swine influenza and its risks for both animal and public health. Despite the burdens caused by swine influenza, surveillance across Europe is scanty and fragmented. Disease awareness is low in some European countries, diagnostic protocols are not harmonized, most countries lack standardised procedures and vaccine coverage is inconsistent. An interdisciplinary expert network is needed to develop a comprehensive view of the disease and its impacts to better manage swine influenza in Europe. ESFLU will:

● Facilitate data sharing and analysis for swIAV surveillance with national and international agencies

● Establish the network as the European OFFLU counterpart and support global surveillance and pandemic preparedness

● Strengthen capability in Europe to detect, identify and characterize swIAV virus

● Establish guidelines for swIAV management and control in pig herds

● Promote dialog between stakeholders and inform policymakers and the general public on swine flu disease burden and the risks to public health.

ESFLU gathers 76 experts in an interdisciplinary One Health approach. The Action will advance scientific knowledge concerning swIAV, improve disease surveillance and management capabilities, benefit pork production and reduce risks to both animal and human health.

https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA21132/

Slow Memory: Transformative Practices for Times of Uneven and Accelerated Change

COST Action, COST: European Cooperation in Science & Technology

CA20105; 2021-2025

Principal Investigator: Nottingham Trent University – Prof. Jenny Wüstenberg

Partners: Etnologický ústav AV ČR
Project participants from the Institute: Dr. Johana Wyss

We are living in times of deep contradictions. While our world accelerates and grows smaller through superfast digital networks, it is also marked by widening socio-economic disparities. We face viral pandemics, rapid species extinction, increased automation of work, quick fixes for mental health, political upheavals and displacements of old certainties. Adaptation and resilience to these challenges must draw on past experiences and cultural resources – this can only happen if we slow down and take time to remember well. This Action addresses the need for increased interdisciplinarity in our understanding of how societies confront their past to contend with environmental, economic and social changes brought on by sudden events and by slow and creeping transformations. The future of peace, prosperity, politics, work and climate will depend upon how we remember socio-cultural and political changes. Transformative practices of remembrance – as objects of study and as critical interventions – will be shared collaboratively across Arts and Sciences in order to reveal the ways in which humans confront large-scale processes of change. This Action will uniquely focus the attention of scholars, policymakers and cultural professionals on alternative paths to build resilience in the face of contemporary rapid-response culture. Through transnational and interdisciplinary discussions, we will address urgency, emergency, crisis and acceleration by drawing together the ‘multi-sited’, ‘eventless’ and slow-moving phenomena that can best be studied by ‘slowing down’ our research methods, to afford capacity building, knowledge generation and impact activities. Inspired by ‘slow science’ (Stengers 2018), we seek an alternative kind of social remembering.

https://www.cost.eu/cost-action/slow-memory-transformative-practices-for-times-of-uneven-and-accelerating-change/#tabs+Name:Description

Twitter: @slowmemo

Social and Humanities Sciences: Humanity and Mankind in the Global Challenges of the Present, Programme Johannes Amos Comenius   

CZ.02.01.01/00/23_025/0008741; 2025-2028

Coordinator: Institute of Czech Literature of the Czech Academy of Sciences

Partners: University of Ostrava; Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences; Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, v.v.i.; Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Project participants from the Institute: Stephanie Rudwick (work package leader), Michal Šípoš, Tina Magazzini, Zita Skořepová, Zdeněk Uherek, Samuel Umoh, Jakub Vávrovský, Bernadette Nadya Jaworsky, Ámál Hadlúlová, May Tamimova

Abstract: Projekt přinese interdisciplinární synergii do výzkumu o migraci a uprchlictví v České republice. V pěti úzce propojených a vzájemně se doplňujících výzkumných záměrech zkoumá lidi v pohybu z perspektivy literární vědy a kulturních studií, etnologie a antropologie, historie a za použití digitálních metod. Kriticky a novým způsobem studuje exil, rasu a jazyk u současných migrantů, vliv států na transnacionální migraci, dějiny pracovní migrace a hranice.

Social and Humanities Sciences: Humanity and Mankind in the Global Challenges of the Present, Programme Johannes Amos Comenius   

CZ.02.01.01/00/23_025/0008705; 2025-2028

Coordinator: Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences

Partners: Charles University, The Center for Theoretical Study; University of West Bohemia in Pilsen; Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Project participants from the Institute: Přemysl Mácha (work package leader), Kateřina Králová, Sandra Kreisslová, Jana Nosková, Michal Pavlásek, Olga Nešporová, Lucie Uhlíková, Jiří Woitsch, Rose Smith, Eva Kalousová, Stanislav Horáček, Anna Kolářová
 
Abstract: Projekt inspiroval spisovatel J. Stránský, který ve svém díle formuloval otázku, jaké strategie volili jednotlivec, rodina, skupina přátel či obyvatelé malého města k překonání traumat, které přinášelo 20. století. Archeologie a kontaktní obory již disponují širokým spektrem možností, jak tyto otázky řešit komplementárně k etablovaném historickému bádání. Mohou tím přispět k pochopení a hojení celé řady traumat, které si neseme z nedávné minulosti, a přispět tím k vyšší společenské odolnosti.   

Standard project 2025, Czech Science Foundation

GA25-15545S; 2025-2027 

Coordinator: Insitute of Ethnology, CAS

Partners: Masaryk University

Project participants from the Institute: Markéta Holubová (PI), Věra Frolcová, Tomáš Slavický a Kristýna Križková
 
Abstract: The project under question is focused on the oral tradition of Czech broadside ballads, their production, reception, media and dissemination. These will be studied by using Czech religious folk songs with Christological motifs collected in rural areas of Moravia and Silesia during the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. This is unique material, gathered by folk song collectors from the end of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century and stored in the collection and documentation funds at the Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences. An experienced, interdisciplinary research team will process this material in all its relevant components: philological, ethnological, ethnomusicological and hymnological. An English monograph will be the main result of the project, will present for the first time the unique material of Czech Czech broadside ballads with Christological motifs to foreign researchers, accompanied by interdisciplinary commentaries, samples with musical notations, and scholarly studies.

Unequal citizenship and transnational mobilisation of Polish, Czech, and Ukrainian Roma in the face of war in Ukraine

Bilateral NCN-GACR Lead Agency Project

24-14388L

2024-2026

Partner organisation: Centre of Migration Research, University of Warsaw and Seminar of Romani Studies, IECEBS, Faculty of Arts, Charles University

Project team at the IE CAS: Martin Fotta, Jan Ort, Kateřina Joštová, Yanush Panchenko

The solidarity shown towards Ukrainians fleeing the war by Poland and Czechia was unprecedented, but not everyone was treated equally. This bilateral Polish-Czech project involving three institutions focuses on the migration experiences and trajectories of Ukrainian Roma, that is those who did not fit the dominant racial and gender profile of a deserving Ukrainian refugee. It also examines the actions of Czech and Polish Roma who mobilized to assist them. The study looks at the unequal nature of citizenship in Central and Eastern Europe and how antigypsyism affects and is reproduced in different relationships and dynamics that emerge in the context of war, such as refugee relief. By comparing Poland and Czechia, countries with a significant Ukrainian population and a high proportion of Ukrainian refugees, the research provides a unique perspective. Moreover, both countries have complex and specific histories of Romani and non-Romani relations. Mixed Romani and non-Romani research teams will use various ethnographic methods to highlight Romani agency and challenge the legacy of methodological nationalism that reproduces the exclusionary nature of the nation-state towards ethnic minorities.

Project website: https://rocit.pl/

Between “East” and “West” – border experiences and narratives on the Czech-Slovak and Slovak-Ukrainian state borders

Standard Projects, Czech Science Foundation, 23-05924S, 2023–2025

Principal Investigator: Institute of Ethnology CAS – Mgr. Jana Nosková, Ph.D.

Partners: Institute of Ethnology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University Prague

Project participants from the Institute: PhDr. Katarína Popelková, CSc., Dr. Natalia Zaitseva-Chipak

The interdisciplinary project deals with border experiences and their changes in times of crises. The subject of its empirical research is the Czech-Slovak and Slovak-Ukrainian borders. The project focuses on the following areas: (1) identifying how borders are perceived, experienced and narrated by local actors; (2) analysing how borders are (re)produced in and through practices and discourses; (3) exploring the strategies and ways for “creating” and “using” borders as resources at the local and national levels; (4) questioning the role of communicative and cultural memory in thematizing state borders and analysing the politics of memory. The research results will be synthesized; will elucidate how borders are (re)constructed from both the micro- and macro-perspectives; and will significantly expand knowledge about border experiences in contemporary, glocalized society. The research uses qualitative methods; its theoretical framework is based on concepts and approaches related to border studies, memory studies, and narrative studies.

Folklore revival in post-socialist countries: politics, memory, heritization and sustainability

Mezinárodní project Lead Agency, Grantová agentura ČR

P410 - Moderní dějiny (od roku 1780) a etnologie

GAČR 22-31474K; 2022–2024

Principal Investigator: Etnologický ústav AV ČR, v. v. i.

Partners: The Institute of Ethnomusicology, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts

Project participants from the Institute: doc. Mgr. Daniela Stavělová CSc., Matěj Kratochví, Ph.D., PhDr. Zdeněk Vejvoda, Ph.D., Zita Skořepová, Ph.D., Lucie Uhlíková, Ph.D.

The project will focus on monitoring the folklore activities in contemporary society, which are associated with making music and dance with elements of traditional folk culture without an obvious intention to cultivate, care for or further disseminate. Unlike the ideologically conceived folklore movement of the second half of the 20th century, there is a shift from presentational to participatory. There is a change in the environment of these activities, which take place not only in the activities of folklore ensembles and associated events, but in connection with emerging events. Important is the process of adopting images of the folklore movement in cultural memory, it is also a shift from local to global: folklore as a reflection of local or regional identity versus folklore as a field of hybrid and multi-genre musical dance expression using bricolage and appropriation of deterritorialized traditions. The theoretical frameworks will provide ethnomusicology and ethnochoreology focused on the study of music and dance in everyday life, their performativity and ways of communication.

Standardní projekt 2022, Grantová agentura České republiky

22-05263S; 2022–2024

Principal Investigator: Slezské zemské muzeum – Dr. Ondřej Kolář

Partners: Etnologický ústav AV ČR
Project participants from the Institute: Dr. Johana Wyss, Mgr. Anežka Brožová

This interdisciplinary project focuses on social transformations and their impact in the region of Czech Silesia and the surrounding North Moravian territories (within the purview of the Provincial National Committee located in Ostrava) during the period between the end of World War II in Europe and the rise of communist regime in Czechoslovakia in February 1948. During the stated period, officially dubbed the Third Republic, the region was affected by the forced expulsion of the majority of German population, as well as by massive industrialisation. This period was also significant due to the re-shaping of Czech-Polish relations and ongoing debates about the role of Silesia in the Czech Lands. Demographic, economic, administrative, and social changes were also accompanied by policies of "czechisation" regarding cultural and academic life. This project focuses on four research themes: Administration, Identity, Migration, and Urbanism. To satisfactorily cover these multidisciplinary topics, the research team is comprised of historians, art historians, and social anthropologists.

Minutes between life and death: Changes in emergency medical service and the professional identity of its employees in the Czech lands 1952−2003

Grant no.: GA23-05753S; 2023−2025

Coordinator: Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences, Mgr. Jiří Hlaváček, Ph.D.

Partners: Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences

Project participant from the Institute: Mgr. Olga Nešporová, Ph.D

The project focuses on the analysis and identification of processes in the development of emergency medical service (EMS) and the professional identity of its employees in the Czech

lands from 1952, when professional pre-hospital emergency care was taken over by the state, to 2003 when EMS transformed into regional contributory organizations. The aim is to describe EMS institutionalization, professionalization and modernization by comparing the official discourse (legislation and departmental documents) and actors’ perspectives (witnesses’ reflections) through regional micro-historical surveys. Interdisciplinary research combines history of medical science, contemporary history, memory and identity studies. The data will be collected and processed using the methods of classical historiography (archival research), historical anthropology (discursive, narrative and symbolic analysis) and social anthropology (qualitatively focused narrative and semi-structured interviews). A published collective monograph and six partial studies on the issue will be the main output of the project.

LQ300582201

2022-2027

Principal Investigator: Martin Fotta

Team Members: Tina Magazzini, Mariana Sabino Salazar, Karolina Válová, Lucie Holzbachová, Ivana Camphuijsen

This project recasts Roma from ‘the largest European minority’ to a pan-Atlantic diaspora shaped by the processes and relationships that structure the globalized world. It advances our understanding of the relational nature of identity formation and social classifications. Despite the centuries-long presence of Roma in America and Africa, scholarship remains methodologically Eurocentric. Romani identities are commonly treated in isolation from global connections that shape how they view themselves and are viewed relative to other ethno-racial communities. Alternatively, the project proposes to investigate Romani identity within comparative, transnational, and intercultural frameworks. The team will conduct ethnographic and archival research in the South Atlantic and examine Romani social position in relation to other ethno-racial projects (e.g., Atlantic slavery). This will generate insights into how different racial contexts impact their belonging and interethnic interactions.

https://www.romaniatlantic.cz

Research on Environmental Sustainability and on the Use of Resources in Central European Households (RESOURCE).

Praemium Academiae/Akademická prémie 2023, Akademie věd České republiky

2024 - 2029

Principal Investigator: Petr Jehlička

Team Members: Daniel Sosna, Maike Melles, Kateřina Joštová, Michaela Jaterková

Research Associates: Evelien de Hoop (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Lucie Sovová (Wageningen University & Research), Esther Veen (Aeres University of Applied Sciences)

The rationale for this project is the realisation that Czech (and other Central European) households harbour a range of everyday practices that are significant in terms of key insights into the efficient and sustainable use of resources. The RESOURCE Project looks at two everyday practices – the production of food waste and consumption of tap water by Czech households – that are at per capita levels considerably below European Union averages. For comparative reasons, it investigates these practices also in the Netherlands. At the same time, both in academic and public policy circles the fact that Czech households master these frugal and thrifty practices is rarely reflected upon. Consequently, little is known about how these remarkable successes are achieved.

Most research projects concerned with efficient resource management on the household level seek to identify ways of reducing or minimising the use of resources while relying, explicitly or implicitly, on the adoption of knowledge and know-how transferred from Western contexts. In contrast, the originality of this Project stems from a reversed logic of questioning. How can the already low, thrifty and frugal use of resources in society be understood and this knowledge made transferrable to other societies? Answering these questions is not only an enticing scholarly challenge but, more importantly, a source of valuable knowledge and practical know-how. If this know-how on household frugal resource use were adopted at the European level, some of the European Union’s key targets concerning reductions in resource use would have been not only met but significantly exceeded.

https://resourceeurope.cz/

Coordinating institute: Institute of Archaeology of the CAS

Coordinator: Mgr. Jana Maříková Kubková, Ph.D. (IA)

Programme website: https://anatomieav21.cz/

Researchers from the Institute of Ethnology: Barbora Gurecká, Pavel Horák, Přemysl Mácha, Jiří Woitsch

Research programme period: 2022 - 2026

About the programme:

The research programme reflects two basic descriptions of the AV21 Strategy. It is phrased with regard to the basic assumption of ‘top-level research for the public benefit’, while the results of the research itself not only have to be demonstrably new and effective but should also offer sets of information that convey these results in a comprehensible way to the public. The second assumption the researchers are stressing is that AV21 Strategy as a whole is constructed in a Toynbee way of research, corresponding to the need of society (challenge) based on answers (response). As one of the key challenges of our time, we consider the research of constructs and functions of Europe and European society.

The present development shows in a constantly changing way that individual states and their political representations understand these entities only on the level of declarative political slogans without real content. Meaningless phrases about the need for European unity easily collapse under the pressure of events, such as a pandemic, immigration and economic crises. The proposed programme is based on the fact that all sciences – whether natural or social – were created for the sake of orienting ourselves in ourselves and in the world, which surrounds us, and thus the research results represent one of the most important areas, from which answers to existential questions can come.

In this respect, the anatomy of European society is a classical subject. At first glance, everything has been said on the subject. The long-term proclamations of purposive truths about the European cultural sphere or about European culture having grown in the fertile soil of ancient civilization, Christianity and Judaism were misused in the social discourse. However, it does not at all mean that they are not derived from values that are part of the European long-term perspective. Strong eurosceptical tendencies very often make use of this trivialization of the subject and create disorientation in the turmoil of the social dialogue, which can lead to accidents of the Brexit type.

The study of the anatomy of European society appears in this perspective as a fundamental subject of our time. We have structured the programme in seven research areas and one discussion platform.

Coordinating institute: Masaryk Institute and Archives of the CAS

Second coordinating institute: Institute of Ethnology of the CAS

Coordinator: PhDr. Martin Klečacký, Ph.D. (MIA)

Programme website: https://identity.mua.cas.cz/cs/english

Researchers from the Institute of Ethnology: Martin Fotta, Johana Kłusek, Kateřina Králová, Přemysl Mácha, Jaroslav Otčenášek

Research programme period: 2024–2028

About the programme:

The current war in Ukraine, the growing turmoil in the Balkans, as well as the tensions between China, Taiwan and other countries are only the most visible manifestations of the "new Cold War", of how fragile and unstable the current world order is. Challenging the current boundaries between states, whether through brute military force or through the use of propaganda and manipulation, is closely related to the question of identity as a key tool of self-identification and demarcation vis-à-vis the other. This process can be examined at the level of individuals as well as entire societies, nations or transnational entities. Indeed, a similar questioning of traditional arrangements is taking place within the functioning of Western society as a whole. Deepening social inequalities, accompanied by new culture wars, are leading to the obscuring of previously constituted patterns of identification and their gradual replacement by new identities. Alongside established ethnic or religious models, new gender, social or political-emancipatory types of identity are emerging. A low level of understanding of these new challenges, often threatening the world as we know it, can have serious consequences.

This interdisciplinary and comparative programme responds to the current disbalance in the value and geopolitical ordering of the contemporary world and explores the formation and negotiation of identities within and between diverse communities and states. Particular attention is paid to regions whose development has major implications for life in the Czech Republic and whose research has been underestimated in recent times: China, Russia, Ukraine and the Balkans. At the same time, the global anchoring of the programme will enable a broader contextualization of activities focused on current social challenges within the Czech Republic, at the level of empirical research on identities in different segments of society, which should provide the basis for the formulation of concrete measures responding to dynamic changes in this area.

Coordinating institute: Institute of Contemporary History of the CAS

Coordinator: PhDr. Adéla Gjuričová, Ph.D. (ICH)

Programme website: https://materialita.usd.cas.cz/en/

Researchers from the Institute of Ethnology: Daniel Sosna

Research programme period: 2025–2029

About the programme:

Modern people are surrounded by too many things, while the world is facing shortages of key raw materials, some of which are extracted under ethically unacceptable and environmentally unsustainable conditions. The material dimension of human existence is thus a major challenge and threat to contemporary society. At the same time, materiality can be seen as an important trace that materials and objects leave behind. If we explore it through interdisciplinary collaboration, it can lead us to a new understanding of the historical, cultural and technological roots of the problems facing humanity today. Through these hitherto unknown contexts, we may also be able to suggest new ways of addressing them.

The programme aims to bring together researchers from all three science fields of the CAS and from other academic and public institutions. Together we seek to rethink the potential of materiality to structure our thinking and to organize the world hierarchically. We will reinterpret the mobility of materials, technologies and knowledge in terms of their technical, cultural and power implications. Innovative raw materials, technologies or products are associated with both major modernization shifts and environmental threats, and shape social relations and political regimes. Conversely, the retreat of the same technologies leads to large-scale processes with uncontrollable effects, such as deindustrialization or the crisis of democracy. Studying the traces of materiality allows us to analyze these social and technical phenomena in their broader environmental and ethical contexts, and to communicate the conclusions to the public.

For the humanities and social sciences, the material turn is a major challenge. However, it is a logical response to the long predominance of studying discourses, ideas and abstract phenomena; the material and technological aspects of social reality and intellectual creations represent a very welcome broadening of horizons and a new focus of attention. In the case of the technical and natural sciences, asking similar questions in historical context can transcend the usual interpretation and help us find new paths in developing sustainable and technologically advanced materials. Only the synergy of the latest approaches of the humanities, engineering and natural sciences with the environmental perspective makes it possible to formulate technical and ideological solutions to contemporary crises.

Coordinating institute: Institute of Computer Science of the CAS

Coordinator: Mgr. Martin Víta, Ph.D. (ICS)

Researchers from the Institute of Ethnology: Matěj Kratochvíl

Research programme period: 2025–2029

About the programme:

AI has experienced tremendous growth in recent years. Especially with the rapid development of generative AI technologies, AI as well as ML, has come to the forefront across a broad spectrum of human activities, including research. Applications based on LLMs have captured the attention of society in an unprecedentedly short time, sparking discussions on their potential uses. The AI phenomenon has dramatically infiltrated nearly all industries, significantly transforming how they function. AI is a great opportunity, as well as a major challenge, for nearly all scientific disciplines studied across the institutes of the CAS. In the context of research, the effective use of AI/ML methods can accelerate many aspects of the research process, while also providing new stimuli for the "creative component" of research activities –similar to what occurred with the development of formal and mathematical foundations in many scientific disciplines. AI plays a role in supporting research activities (e.g., project management in R&D etc.). AI can be viewed from many different perspectives, ranging from specific approaches for solving particular problems to more general considerations regarding AI’s impacts across different sectors.

The program "AI: Artificial Intelligence for Science and Society" responds to these developments: its goal is to support not only research and development in the area of general AI and machine learning methods but also the application of AI methods in various institutes across all three scientific domains to address problems in a wide range of fields, as well as research into the societal aspects of AI. The program also encompasses a set of cross-cutting AI activities across the institutes, strengthening inter-institutional collaboration both within the Academy and with other research organizations outside of it, including international partnerships. It also creates the necessary infrastructure for collaboration with the commercial sector and public administration, as well as for knowledge transfer in the AI field. The program does not overlook opportunities related to education and training of the younger generation, nor issues of resilience and security within the Czech research space. This is reflected in the project’s structure of five research topics (plus one support topic for program coordination).

The program will also contribute to enhancing the perception of the CAS as a key player in the AI field, both within the Czechia and beyond.

Digitisation of the archives of the Working Committee for the Czech Folk Song in Moravia and Silesia and the Moravian-Silesian Committee of the State Institute for Folk Song, both led by Leoš Janáček

Project financially supported by the Leoš Janáček Foundation (2025–)
Academic supervisor of the project: Lucie Uhlíková

Programme of support for excellent research in priority areas of public interest in health care - EXCELES, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports.

LX22NPO5101, 2022–2025

Research group leader Social Resilience: Alice Koubová, Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences

Principal investigator from IE CAS: Michal Šípoš

Team members from IE CAS: Luděk Brož, Martin Fotta, Ognjen Kojanic, Ivana Camphuijsen

SYRI is a scientific platform that brings together experts from Masaryk University, Charles University and the Czech Academy of Sciences to examine risks and address social challenges arising from dramatic events such as the global health crisis, the war between Russia and Ukraine, and a range of environmental crises. Within SYRI, our team works in the Social Resilience research group, which understands the phenomenon as a process that strengthens cohesion among various actors—such as institutions, communities and individuals—during periods of unprecedented change, uncertainty and unforeseen risks. Resilience is sustained through social bonds, inclusive practices, shared values, life strategies and state policies. Our team contributes to the collective research by developing an ethnographic theory as a guiding analytical framework. Rather than treating resilience as a universal aspect of the human condition, we zoom in on concrete lives in various contexts, where practices of sustaining life amid the ongoing polycrisis are of central importance.

https://www.syri.cz