CEU to lead new Horizon Europe project on how workplace inequalities shape democratic trust, participation, and resilience

We are delighted to announce that the INDEMTRUST project (Inequality and Democracy in Europe: Trust, Participation, and Resilience), led by CEU's Shattuck Center for Human Rights at the Department of Public Policy, has been selected for funding under Horizon Europe, the European Union's flagship research and innovation programme.

At a time when democratic institutions across Europe face growing pressures, INDEMTRUST investigates a fundamental question: how do inequalities experienced in everyday working life influence the way citizens engage with democracy?

The project addresses a major gap in existing research by placing the workplace at the centre of analysis. While most studies examine the relationship between inequality and democracy at the societal level, INDEMTRUST explores how inequalities are generated, experienced, and perceived through people's daily interactions at work, and how these experiences shape democratic attitudes, trust, participation, and political behaviour.

The project combines innovative agent-based modelling with participatory action research and mutual learning labs, bringing together researchers, citizens, and stakeholders to better understand the links between economic inequality and democratic resilience and to co-create policy responses.

Focusing on labour market conditions, social trust, and political mobilisation, INDEMTRUST will generate new evidence on how economic inequalities affect democratic legitimacy across Europe.

INDEMTRUST brings together an interdisciplinary consortium of leading European researchers and institutions, including CEU, UNIVPM, CELSI, Masaryk University, Örebro University, Fraunhofer, LISER, and Sapienza University of Rome. The project is coordinated by Martin Kahanec at CEU, who serves as the consortium's Principal Investigator. The CEU research team further includes Felix Butzlaff, Evelyne Hübscher, and Violetta Zentai.

By connecting research on inequality, work, and democracy, INDEMTRUST aims to contribute to evidence-informed policies that strengthen democratic resilience across Europe.

“Democratic resilience ultimately rests on more than constitutional rules and political institutions. It depends on whether people believe that the inequalities and injustices they encounter in their daily lives can be voiced, represented, and addressed within the democratic process. The workplace is one of the most important arenas where such experiences are formed, yet its influence on democratic attitudes remains poorly understood. INDEMTRUST puts this question at the centre of its research agenda to help address one of the key policy challenges facing European democracies today.” – Martin Kahanec, Central European University

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