International Human Solidarity Day
On the 22nd of December 2005, the United Nations General Assembly through its resolution 60/209 identified solidarity as an essential universal value at the foundations of international relations in the 21st century. Many of us acknowledge and cherish the relevance of solidarity in our lives, both socially, but also as a source of fulfillment in our personal lives. And today we celebrate the International Human Solidarity Day.
The benefits of acting with solidarity are manyfold and have been long known. From the feeling of belonging, to the strength of a community, solidarity emerges as a driver for social involvement as well as an outcome thereof. However, this universal value does not go hand in hand with its popularity and else, the current socio-political moment is a challenging one which renders this task ever more crucial.
Scientific evidence indicates that efforts need to be made in giving visibility to those solidarity actions that are being successful and in explaining very well what makes them successful. This is one of the concerns that we are tackling in the HYPE project (YoutH unified in local ecosYstEms Promoting Solidarity) funded by the European Commission’s CERV-2023-CITIZENS-CIV programme. Understanding the key drivers of solidarity that is successful specially among young people will contribute to boosting solidarity actions among society.
However, fakes and misinformation abound and it is therefore that scientific evidence about solidarity is so important. Antimigrant sentiments, for instance, arise in European communities on the grounds of false statements such as the alledged “cost of migration for European societies” a fake that feeds polarization and antidemocratic positions about our richly diverse societies. Against this, it becomes essential to know and spred the truth so that citizens know for instance, that scientific evidence debunks these myths showing for instance that in many countries in the EU migrants actually contribute more than native citizens to the country’s public finances.
Scientific knowledge plays a key role, also for changing people’s misinformed ideas which have huge consequences in voting behaviour and policy-making. In this regard, another research funded by the H2020 EU programme found that access to scientific knowledge and data helps modify the prejudices and discriminatory attitudes among the general population, with an important impact on the benefits for the whole population.
Against the backdrop of this momentous challenge, the HYPE project reminds us of one essential aspect that should be at the foundation of solidarity actions– whether Local Action Plans or large mobilisation campaigns- to be based on what works.
From the communicative acts through which we talk about the solidarity actions and people, to the scientific base that needs to be grounding any action to achieve solidarity with social impact and so guarantee the highest benefit for the targets of the action but also for the whole society. Because without success, solidarity looses its meaningful power, and much is at stake now.
(Image from freepik)
Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Barcelona.
Extensive experience in the participation of EU funded research projects particularly from the EC’s Framework Programme.
Co-editor of RASP: Research on Ageing and Social Policy.