In the Urses project Transition Patterns Enabling Smart Energy Systems (TRAPESES), the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (Erasmus University), TUDelft and Alliander focus on the uncertainties related to a hybrid transition pattern. In such a pattern actors, aligned with the energy regime, and newcomers, developing niches, shape joint learning environments. Building on (findings from) this research, the TRAPESES consortium, together with Energy Cooperative Zuiderlicht (Amsterdam), Waternet, Alliander DGO, and the Urgenda Foundation propose to develop the ABC concept, which addresses the main uncertainties in realizing a newly constructed zero emission neighbourhood in Amsterdam. Three partners have recently developed a technical concept for this smart energy system. Its main ingredients are an infrastructure for a very low temperature heating system combined with new sanitation. The main research problem for the ABC concept is how systemic uncertainties must be addressed in order to get the job done. ABC especially focuses on uncertainties that relate to institutional design, i.e. building a partnership coalition, sharing risks and dividing particular roles and responsibilities. ABC thereby distinguishes between partners who may become immediately involved in the design and implementation of the smart energy system, such as the cooperative and grid operators and partners who will have to shape the conditions through collective decision-making, i.e. Amsterdam municipality and its population. Therefore, ABC will focus on two closely linked types of activities: on the one hand coproducing the institutional design and implementation plan, and, on the other, mobilizing a support base through dialogue and participation.

The importance of technology in our life is growing rapidly. Its impact on education, however, remains limited because of a lack of tuning with pedagogy. This proposal aims at increasing the pedagogical value of technology, by studying the effectiveness of videoblogging (vlogging) in science education. Whereas vlogging has proven itself as an increasingly popular form of entertainment among adolescents, a small but increasing number of studies shows that vlogging can provide a powerful means to enhance students’ learning and engagement in science education. It is, however, yet unknown what aspects of vlogging contribute to these benefits. Based on theories of learning, vlogging may be effective because it relies on proven learning strategies, such as explaining. It also allows the use of visual support, such as pictures, diagrams, or gestures, and thus fosters learning through multiple modalities and enables interaction between learner and learning materials. Additionally, vlogging may increase engagement and students interest in science by introducing more social activities. The proposed project will experimentally investigate how explaining, visual support, and social aspects contribute to learning and engagement during vlogging. It also investigates how innovative technologies, such as artificial intelligence and augmented reality, can support vlogging and enhance learning and engagement.

This research will investigate how people gather, interpret, and use information about COVID-19. Which information sources do they use? How often do they consult these sources? What is their factual knowledge about COVID-19? How confident are they about this knowledge? Do they endorse conspiracy theories about COVID-19? How closely do they follow governmental guidelines about COVID-19 related behavior? Are there systematic individual differences in these issues? Are there cross-cultural differences in COVID-19 information processing?

Populism, claim culture and radical fundamentalism, together with the culture of complaint in affluent societies, challenge us to reconsider the issue of ressentiment. This research project proposes a fundamental affect theory of political culture in which the conceptual entanglement of ressentiment with democracy is critically revisited. This will be done in relation to the contemporary crisis of citizenship, signaled by the paradox that despite the success of modern emancipatory movements, citizens continue to experience themselves as handicapped subjects. This paradox is reflected by the simultaneous moralization of citizenship from a common right into a personal virtue and eventually into a means for social exclusion versus the growing feeling of impotence to live up to our moral standards. My hypothesis is that this paradox is rooted in the affective infrastructure of contemporary democracies and can be explained in terms of ressentiment. My main objective is 1. to supplement the existing but ideologically overdetermined discourse on the relation between ressentiment and democracy with a coherent political ontology of affects, inspired by Spinoza, Nietzsche, Deleuze and Sloterdijk. On this basis, I will 2. develop criteria for determining the specificity of democratic culture in relation to ressentiment and thus for the cultural-philosophical interpretation and evaluation of recent developments ranging from anti-elitarism to radicalizing fundamentalism; 3. reinterpret Arendt?s relational ontology of public action in order to explore ethical conditions under which ressentiment can be transformed into positively interested interaction. A persisting problem in this context is the double bind between ?Inter-esse? and ressentiment in mediations of publicness such as popular representation or mass media. Recent theoretical renewals of citizenship do not sufficiently take into account this affective vulnerability of democratic culture and must therefore be supplemented with a medial ethos of public life based on ?aristocratic? virtues and on a ?hygiene? of anger.

The fashion industry is facing significant restructuring. As the location of production moves to the East and fast fashion is on the rise together with a higher speed of fashion cycles, independent fashion designers have to develop new strategies to compete. Within this framework, a significantly increasing number of designers seek to stay local, rediscover local craftsmanship skills and wish to exert greater amounts of control over the production process, while also infusing an artisanal ethos and emphasis on quality into their collections. These locally focused strategies are accompanied by new ways to reach the (global) intermediaries and the market. In theory, digitalisation and globalisation allow to cut intermediaries and interact directly with the consumers, but the extent of such dis-intermediation remains unclear. Some scholars argue in favour of re-intermediation processes. The aim of the project is to provide a first exploration of the entrepreneurial practices of independent fashion designers in relation to local production systems (the practices between independent fashion designers and local craftsmen) and intermediation processes (the practices between independent fashion designers and intermediaries) from both a cultural economic perspective and a cultural sociological perspective. Erasmus University Rotterdam and Hogeschool Rotterdam partner with MARGREETH OLSTHOORN, Van Rijthoven Holding, NOT JUST A LABEL, Willem de Kooning Academy, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and Het Nieuwe Instituut to analyse the case of Rotterdam-based designers. Among the deliverables are series of meeting with the partners, a round table and a final symposium for a broader public, a shop-in-shop and a final report.