ReDigIm is a research project that examines the meanings and practices of redistribution in the context of digitization.
Across Europe, citizens are increasingly using digital tools such as websites, apps, payment technologies, and social media to give, share, and donate. These forms of prosocial contribution point to new forms of civic engagement, solidarity, and care for others, but they also disrupt established state-mandated forms of social care and raise questions about the future of tax systems in European welfare states.
ReDigIm investigates how citizens engage in prosocial contributions amidst these new digital opportunities. The project examines the collective imaginaries of redistribution that underlie and give meaning to these practices.
The ReDigIm team consists of 12 researchers with specialist knowledge in Sociology, Anthropology, and Media and Cultural Studies, working at five universities. In addition to the JGU team, the other researchers are located in London (University of the Arts London), Barcelona (Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Finland (University of Lapland), and Switzerland (Universität Zürich).
ReDigIm employs a mixed-methods approach that includes discourse analyses, analyses of the affordances of digital platforms, field research with civil society groups, and scenario development workshops with stakeholders. The Mainz team consists of cultural and social anthropologists who are investigating forms of prosocial giving in Montenegro. During a ten-month research stay in Montenegro, the study examined how practices of redistribution are shaped and transformed by digitization.
The research team works in close partnership with five partner institutions, mostly NGOs, that play a key role in defining, developing, and disseminating the research results.
