Redigim examines the impact of digitalisation on European citizens’ understanding of what it means to contribute to society. Taxation, philanthropy, charity and mutual aid are redistributive forms that enable individuals to ‘pay in’ to their societies. They invite or compel citizens to make payments with a view to sustaining their social worlds, supporting others, or transforming their societies. Digitalisation processes are rapidly reconfiguring access to and engagement with these redistributive forms, initiating more social forms of payment and contribution. The emergence of new forms of contribution fostered by digital platforms point to novel modes of participation, solidarity, and care for others, but they are also disruptive of established state-mandated forms of social provisioning, raising questions about the future of taxation systems in European welfare states.
Redistributive imaginaries are semiotic systems that give meaning and shape to the structures which enable prosocial contribution. They provide collective, common-sense ways of understanding the relationship between economic contribution and social solidarity. Redigim investigates the role of the digital in emergent redistributive imaginaries. It will develop case studies in five national contexts – the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Finland, Spain and Montenegro – representing different welfare state models and philanthropic traditions. Redigim will identify local, national and transnational tendencies at a European level, and will use project findings to build scenarios for the future of prosocial contribution in Europe.
Located in cultural sociology, media and cultural studies and social and cultural anthropology, the project team is uniquely placed to deliver qualitative research that foregrounds the role of cultural, signifying practices in economic processes and practices. Redigim will pursue an innovative mixed-methods approach to the study of digitalisation, incorporating discourse analysis, affordance analysis of digital platforms and ethnography of everyday prosocial practices. Redigim will significantly advance the study of redistributive imaginaries, and it will deliver qualitative case studies and scenarios which will be of value to a range of stakeholder audiences in civil society, government and business.
KEYWORDS:
philanthropy, taxation, donation, redistribution, solidarity, welfare, imaginaries, digitization
CONSORTIUM
- Project Leader: Rebecca Bramall, University of the Arts London, School of Media – London College of Communication, United Kingdom, e-mail
- Moritz Ege, University of Zürich, Department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies, Switzerland, e-mail
- Mercè Oliva, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Department of Communication, Spain, e-mail
- Janne Autto, University of Lapland, Faculty of Social Sciences Finand
- Carna Brkovic, University of Goettingen, Institute for Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology, Germany
COOPERATION PARTERS
- Marco Kistler, Digital/Organizing GmbH
- Juha-Erkki Mäntyniemi, Fingo
- Susana Garcia Noguero, Goteo Foundation
- Maija Mattila, Kalevi Sorsa Foundation
- Anica Boljević, Fund for Active Citizenship
EFFECTS & ACHIEVEMENTS
Project achievements:
Redistributive Imaginaries: Digitalization, culture and prosocial contribution (REDIGIM, 2022-25) is a collaborative research and knowledge exchange project delivered by a consortium of five universities. The project investigates meanings and practices of redistribution in the context of the rapid digitalization of fundraising for welfare provision.
In the context of global wealth inequality, questions about how economic resources might be shared differently have never been more relevant. In Europe’s mixed economies of welfare, welfare provision is dispersed through a range of social practices and institutions beyond the state, incorporating voluntary, informal, and market actors. As a result, redistribution practices are also diffused through civil society, as welfare providers elicit voluntary contributions to fund welfare interventions. A ‘digital shift’ is under way, compelling fundraisers to make extensive use of digital tools such as social media and crowdfunding platforms.
REDIGIM intervenes in these developments through a focus on the interface between civil society, digitalization, and visions of welfare provision. The aim of the project is to identify the overarching systems of meaning – or ‘imaginaries’ – that people use to make sense of redistribution, and to interrogate the role of digital tools and platforms in shaping those systems of meaning.
REDIGIM conducted research in five national contexts – Finland, Montenegro, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom – each representing different welfare state models and ‘mixes’. An innovative methodological approach to the interrogation of imaginaries was implemented, incorporating discourse analysis, affordance analysis of digital platforms used to elicit donations, interviews with tech representatives, and digitalized ethnography of redistribution practices in civil society.
REDIGIM generated significant findings at the national scale which we synthesized
to produce European-level outcomes. We found that civil society is a critical locus of mean-making about redistribution, and redistributive imaginaries are shaped by digital ideologies, affordances and material infrastructures. We identified seven dominant imaginaries, and found that solutionist and market-friendly conceptions of the digital are deeply embedded in these ways of thinking. Redistributive imaginaries tend to reinforce a narrative of welfare state decline, and to consolidate an emerging common sense about the role of private and civil society actors in mixed economies of welfare. Fieldwork research also foregrounded frictions, discontents, and forms of resistance to the demands that follow from the digital shift in civil society.
REDIGIM has significantly advanced the study of redistributive imaginaries, demonstrating that it is vital to set aside long-established definitions of redistribution which focus solely on the welfare state, and that collective sense-making about resource-sharing takes place through a much wider range of practices, mechanisms, and institutions.
REDIGIM has closely engaged with stakeholder audiences in the voluntary sector, social policy, digital innovation, tax justice, and local government. These knowledge exchange activities aim to achieve positive social change through the dissemination of project findings and conceptual and methodological frameworks to social actors who influence policymaking in national or European settings, as well as those who contribute to welfare provision in civil society. In this way, we expect REDIGIM to inform the future of welfare systems in Europe.
Publications:
- Bramall, R., Crowdfunding and Taxation, Finance and Society, 2026
- Čergić, M., Reproducing Inequality through Humanost, Focaal, 2026
- Ottovay, K., When Solidarity Fills in the Gaps, Social Anthropology, 2026
- Bramall, R., Paylor, J., Čergić, M., Villegas Simón, I., Lakkala, K., Neutralizing Redistributive Demands, 2026
- Bramall, R., Ege, M., Oliva, M., Autto, J., Brković, Č., Redistributive Imaginaries, 2026
- Bramall, R., Ege, M., Oliva, M., Redistributive Imaginaries in Europe’s Mixed Economies, Journal of Cultural Economy, 2026
- Oliva, M., Autto, J., Villegas Simón, I., Lakkala, K., The Redistributive Imaginaries of Crises, New Political Economy, 2026
- Autto, J., How to Analyse Economic Imaginaries, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2026
- Autto, J., Hyvinvointivaltion Jännitteet, Tiede ja Edistys, 2026
- Ege, M., Dommann, M., Die Clickgabe, Zeithistorische Forschungen, vol. 21(1), 2025, https://zeithistorische-forschungen.de/1-2024-2025/6196
- Autto, J., Lakkala, K., Taloudellisen Uudelleenjakamisen Mielikuvitukset, Poliittinen talous, vol. 13(2), 2025, https://doi.org/10.51810/pt.162476
- Lakkala, K., Loikkanen, T., Kiertotalouden Kapitalistinen Utopia, Tiede ja Edistys, vol. 50(2), 2025, https://doi.org/10.51809/te.147379
- Bramall, R., Oliva, M., Researching Imaginaries in Media Studies, Intellect, 2026
- Bramall, R., Paylor, J., Like a Community Uber, Critical Policy Studies, 2026
- Brković, Č., Čergić, M., Developing Philanthropy, Social Anthropology, 2026
- Brković, Č., Čergić, M., Crowdfunding in Montenegro, 2026
- Ege, M., Ottovay, K., Making Donors Put Their Money Where Their Hearts Are, Finance and Society, 2026
- Oliva, M., Villegas Simón, I., The Promise of Visibility, Social Media + Society, 2026
- Oliva, M., Villegas Simón, I., Guerrero-Pico, M., The Platformization of Prosocial Giving, Information, Communication & Society, 2026
- Oliva, M., Villegas Simón, I., Slow State, Disorganised Citizens and Generous Private Companies, Language & Politics, 2026
- Autto, J., Lakkala, K., Huuhka, M., Hyvinvointivaltion Hiipumisen Dystopiasta, 2026
- Autto, J., Lempiäinen, K., Huhtala, E., From Welfarist to Neoliberal Education Policy?, 2026
Start date
1 November 2022
Project duration
36 months
Project budget
€ 1 328 347
Funding organisations
