SHAPEDEM-EU Concept Manual

SHAPEDEM-EU publication

The following document represents the SHAPEDEM-EU project’s common understandings of its essential terms. SHAPEDEM-EU’s goal is to rethink, reshape and review the EU’s support for democratic politics in its Eastern and Southern Neighbourhoods. The diverse and multiperspective constellation of SHAPEDEM-EU’s partners, objectives and activities require a unified set of concepts to contextualize the ongoing work. 

Over the course of the project’s first 8 months, its partners collaborated to define the concepts listed. This document serves as a guiding manual for users to familiarize themselves with how SHAPEDEM-EU perceives democracy support and its related concepts. The manual’s inception and final output were directed by Michelle Pace and Christian Achrainer from Roskilde University. Through a series of meetings, deliberations, feedback and proofreading phases, as well as final touches, the contributing authors and editors collectively prepared this conceptual manual. However, while much effort has been put into defining and agreeing upon these key terms, our understandings, as well as the understandings of our target audiences, are of course not stagnant. Thus, the concepts may be subject to change as SHAPEDEM-EU engages with key stakeholders to learn more about local democratic knowledge and practices of democracy support. We hope you enjoy our understanding of these vital concepts and stay connected for any updates and further publications within the SHAPEDEM-EU project.