We are excited to announce Cartoon Movement is part of a new research project! The project is named DELIAH, an acronym for Democratic Literacy and Humour. DELIAH examines the multifaceted role of humor in artistic forms, cultural spaces, and online and offline fora, identifying how humor can either support or undermine democratic participation and processes in Europe.

For the next four years, DELIAH will undertake research in Spain, Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Slovakia, Spain and the Netherlands. The research is done by a consortium of universities, lead by Ghent University. The other partners are the University of Groningen, the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Comenius University Bratislava, the University of Göttingen and the University of Tartu. Cartoon Movement is part of the consortium to provide a practical perspective. The project is funded by the European Union as part of the HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-04.

Cartoon by Steve Bonello

At the core the project is academic research, but the output is meant to be usable not only for academics, but also for policy makers, NGOs, educators, satire professionals and the average European. Throughout its four year lifespan, the project will publish toolkits and white papers that will present the research results and translate them into clear insights, policy recommendations and educational tools.

Here are some of the things we'll be doing in the next four years:

-Provide an overview of how Europeans look at humor.

-Provide an analysis of how humor can foster democratic participation.

-Create tools to recognize humor that aims to undermine democracy.

-Provide guidelines for content moderation (when is moderation warranted and when should free speech prevail).

-How to recognize humor that aims to undermine democracy.

All the output will be made available on the project website deliah.eu, but if you want to be informed about the project from time to time, we recommend you subscribe to this Substack. There we'll provide the latest project updates, news about events, interviews and a weekly cartoon about democracy.