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Open Society Research Platform

The Open Society Research Platform (OSRP) ran from 2021 to 2023, tasked with exploring how the concept of open society has been used in academic, policy, and public discourses, and identifying the major strands of relevant debates around this contested concept. OSRP addressed a strong need for academic research on open society for two interconnected reasons: First, it is a core value in the missions of both OSUN and co-founding institution CEU; and second, it is important to analyze how the idea of open society can be translated into civic, intellectual, and knowledge-exchange practices to foster critical thinking and positive change.

OSRP's Work

In its first two years, OSRP established itself as a leading research center on the concept of open society, a proactive organizer of academic events that brought together scholars from OSUN and beyond to discuss questions central to its mission, and a keen promoter of OSUN values and initiatives through participation in working groups, teaching of OSUN courses, and network building with OSUN partners.

During 2021-2022, OSRP:
  • identified and reviewed more than 650 sources (books, edited volumes, journal and newspaper articles, etc.) and created a literature review of 700 pages;
  • identified the major fields and topics of academic research that engage with the concept of open society, analyzed the key usages of the concept, and the differences between existing conceptualizations;
  • provided an overview and a discussion of institutions that have "open society" in their name, or their mission statement, or draw on the concept in significant ways;
  • created an open access online database, the most comprehensive repository on literature on open society currently available;
  • established a series of workshops ("OSUN Talks") on open society and post-colonialism, polarization and conflict, and comparative political thought;
  • hosted the conference Forget Open Society? Critical Conversations on a Contested Concept, which featured eight panels and three keynote events on a variety of crucial questions surrounding the concept of open society;
  • established collaborations with CEU’s Socrates Project, Bard College, the Universidad de los Andes, the OSUN working group on Artificial Intelligence and the Humanities.
In 2022-2023, OSRP continued three-pronged approach – academic research, event organization, and participation/collaboration – to build upon and further develop its research on open society in theory and practice. The findings accumulated during its first year enabled OSRP to identify two key directions of research in 2022-2023, which are related to topical debates in social and political sciences, and are of high relevance to OSUN: 1) threats to open society posed by technological domination and technocratic governance, and 2) the relationship(s) between open society and higher education.

OSRP Website

Leadership

Volha Biziukova and Christof Royer, Central European University

For more information, contact:
Oleksandr Shtokvych, OSUN Secretariat, Central European University
[email protected]

News

Karl Popper in Critical Conversation: Freedom, Plurality, and Openness in Contemporary Times
Post Date: November 1, 2021
"Open Society" and "The West": Imperialist Apparatus or Decolonizing Tool?
Post Date: July 20, 2021
Conflict and Polarization: Open Societies and the Contemporary Crisis of Democracy
Post Date: July 20, 2021