Prof. Małgorzata Kossowska from the Faculty of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University is one of the winners of the CHANSE – Transformations: Social and Cultural Dynamics in The Digital Age competition.

Coordinated by the National Science Center (NCN), the CHANSE program is implemented by 27 research funding institutions from 24 European countries. Among the winners are 12 Polish research teams from Poland, including 3 from the Jagiellonian University.

Prof. Małgorzata Kossowska, however, is the only project leader from Poland and at the same time the head of the Polish team including Prof. Piotr Kłodkowski (UJ) and Dr Anna Siewierska-Chmaj, the University of Rzeszów.

The project will be implemented with partners from Sweden (University of Gothenburg and Stockholm University), Spain (University of Córdoba), Germany (Freie Universität, Berlin) and Great Britain (University College London). Also, the social partners are the Copernicus Science Center and the German Institute on Radicalization and De-radicalization Studies.

“The main goal of the project is to investigate the role of electronic media in the social and cultural transformation, which in our opinion consists in departing from an open society, enabling functioning in flexible social networks, towards a “patchwork” society, based on various types of closed (micro) groups, with a strong identity, strong intra-group ties and own epistemic realities”, says Prof. Małgorzata Kossowska.

She emphasizes, that this process, leading to social fragmentation, has serious social implications, such as distrust of the state and its institutions, low level of social consensus, low level of participation and disobedience.

“The project focuses on understanding the role of motivational, cognitive, social and cultural factors that shape this process”, explains Prof. Małgorzata Kossowska.

Adrian Andrzejewski