Funding for the FIERCE project under Horizon Europe

Feminist Movements Revitalizing Democracy in Europe (FIERCE) is an international consortium project. It aims to revitalise the relationship between feminism, civil society and politics in the context of growing social inequality, political discontent and the strengthening of the populist radical anti-gender right.

The European Commission has awarded funding to a new Horizon Europe project in which UG is a partner. "Feminist Movements Revitalizing Democracy in Europe" (FIERCE), ranked first on the shortlist, aims to help understand feminist and anti-feminist movements, actions and discourses and their impact on the institutional arena and political outcomes.

Dr Grzegorz Piotrowski from the Institute of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, UG

The project is carried out in an international consortium including Vilabs, Aalborg University (Denmark), Scuola Normale Superiore (Italy), Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain), Koc University (Turkey), Univerza v Ljubljani (Slovenia), Aristotelio Panepistimio Thessalonikis (Greece), Smart Venice (Italy), Alternatives European Association (France), Mirovni inštitut (Slovenia) and the University of Gdańsk.

'We want to provide reliable theoretical and practical knowledge and tools to revive alliances between the feminist movement, civil society and policymakers in the context of growing social inequalities, political discontent and the strengthening of the populist radical anti-gender right,' says dr Grzegorz Piotrowski from the Institute of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, project leader at UG. - 'We will conduct the research with the help of frame analysis, political ethnography and social network analysis against the background of key gender debates and controversies in several areas, i.e. labour market, health and reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights, migration and gender-based violence.'.

Dr Magdalena Muszel from the Institute of Sociology, UG.

FIERCE will include eight case studies (France, Italy, Greece, Slovenia, Turkey, Denmark, Poland, Spain) representing diverse national contexts in political, geographical and social terms.

'It is by going beyond national approaches that a comparative cross-sectional analysis of the way gender debates and controversies have affected the dynamics and outcomes of law-making or other political actions will be ensured,' - adds dr Magdalena Muszel from the Institute of Sociology UG, who is participating in the project. - 'Based on co-creation methods and a strong alliance with civil society organisations, FIERCE proposes pilot activities to analyse the impact of local policies and international linkages on the strength, coherence and effectiveness of the activities of civil society at large.'.

The role of UG is to collect and analyse data from Poland, and to coordinate one of the research modules on the impact of national policies on the phenomena studied.

Research conducted under FIERCE will focus on the years 2010-2021.

EMW / Press Office UG