TIDAInstitute for Social InquiryAn open map of inquiry
Society’s questions are interconnected; our work brings disciplines together.
We begin with questions emerging from society—from people’s lives, relationships, institutions, uncertainties, and aspirations. Our fields connect these questions and open them to inquiry from different perspectives.
A connected view
Questions of identity are also questions of power. Questions of services are questions of inequality and trust. Questions of law are inseparable from justice, legitimacy, international norms, and everyday life.
We explore how people live together, how institutions shape their possibilities, how societies respond to change, and how knowledge can open more just and meaningful paths forward.
Interconnected spaces of inquiry
Each area offers a distinct point of entry and connects with the others.
How do societies change—and what does change mean in people’s everyday lives?
Social relations, values, generations, family life, demographic change, technology, crises, inequality, and the practices through which societies continually remake themselves.
Who holds power, how is it exercised, and how do people experience it?
State formation, legitimacy, institutions, governance, decentralisation, public policy, accountability, political participation, and relations between state and society.
When does law become justice—and whose rights does it protect?
Domestic and international law, human rights and humanitarian norms, rule of law, citizenship, judicial institutions, transitional justice, legal pluralism, equality, access to justice, and the distance between written and lived rights.
How do people understand who they are—and where they belong?
Identity, religion, memory, language, culture, collective narratives, symbols, heritage, values, and the ways societies produce and contest meaning.
What allows people to live together after trust has been fractured?
Conflict, peace, dialogue, social cohesion, reconciliation, polarisation, violence, collective memory, trust-building, and social relations after crisis.
How do economic choices and public services shape dignity, opportunity and belonging?
Work, poverty, political economy, social protection, housing, health, education, public services, environment, and the material conditions of participation and future-making.
Whose roles are recognised, whose voices are heard, and whose experiences remain unseen?
Gender, women, youth, care, family, representation, social roles, power in public and private life, and changing relations between generations.
What happens to identity, community and citizenship when people move—or places change?
Migration, displacement, diaspora, borders, cities, local communities, integration, transnational citizenship, environment, mobility, and attachment to place.
Questions we carry across our work
These questions travel across every field, helping us follow a problem as people live it and connect insights from different disciplines.
Our inquiry remains open
TIDA’s fields grow with emerging realities, new forms of knowledge, and the questions people bring into public life.
Continue the journey
