Using Contact Interventions to Promote Engagement and Mobilisation for Social Change: ENGAGE

Programme(s): Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme-REC Programme 2014-2020

Topic(s): REC-RDIS-DISC-AG-2020

Type of action: REC Action Grant

Project ID: 963122

Objective

ENGAGE addresses the discrimination of Roma people in Europe building on the assumption that antigypsyism and a hostile normative political context create obstacles to Roma inclusion and the social engagement of Roma and non-Roma people alike. Our objectives: (1) Addressing the problem of antigypsyism and indifference among members of the non-Roma majority. (2) Increasing Roma activism and engagement. (3) Mobilising the non-Roma population as allies for social change. We propose to identify a new approach to contact-based interventions to fulfil the aim of creating harmony in society while maintaining awareness of social inequalities. Our project will have two main pillars: (1) conducting and assessing contact-based intervention programs using action research and identifying best practices; (2) randomised controlled lab and survey experiments, and analysing data from large European surveys (e.g. ESS, EVS) and using meta-analysis of previous research. We will focus on Hungary, Slovakia and Spain, but maintain a European perspective in data collection and dissemination. Based on this multi-method project, we will develop common methodologies for contact-based interventions and an online, interactive toolkit for evaluating interventions from the perspective of fit with the normative context, prejudice reduction, and social mobilisation. We will organise 23 informal education workshops in Hungary (and to smaller degree in Spain) with non-Roma and Roma youth (~N=250), developed in the iterative process of action research. Best practices, experimental evidence and secondary data analysis will provide factual information to academic and lay people, local and EU politicians and NGOs, disseminated in traditional and social media by creating a short video and press releases. The interactive toolkit for evaluating interventions from the perspective of fit with the normative context, prejudice reduction, and social mobilisation will be accessible online.