KATARSIS

Project Website:
http://katarsis.ncl.ac.uk/

Project Summary

KATARSIS is a Coordination Action (CA) under European Commission Framework-6 Programme, coordinated by Global Urban Research Unit (GURU), at the School of Architecture Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University, UK

KATARSIS builds a platform on which research teams specialised in the study of the consequences of growing inequality and social exclusion will exchange their knowledge and work towards a better integration of their research programmes and methodologies.

The focus is on a unique type of response to growing exclusion, namely the creative and socially innovative strategies by which people react to conditions of exclusion, both at the individual and collective level. People in situations of need activate and (re)produce particular types of knowledge and combine resources in novel ways. The strategies they develop in response to exclusion often exhibit marked differences in the ways in which mainstream society’s knowledge and practices are mobilised and deployed, and frequently trigger processes of social innovation that open up fresh venues for policy design and implementation.

The coordinating team is led by Prof Frank Moulaert and Prof Jean Hillier.