Partner description:
Since its foundation over 100 years ago, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business has grown to be the largest university of its kind in the European Union and now has close to 24,000 students. Its ambition is to become one of the leading institutions worldwide in business and economics research, and to teach with an international perspective and a global reach. WU claims triple accreditation by EQUIS, AACSB, and AMBA, the three most respected accreditation agencies, and its academic programs place consistently well in numerous international rankings.
What they do for Perceive:
The WU Research Institute for Urban Management and Governance will lead two specific research activities. A first activity aims at evaluating the effectiveness of EU communication strategies around its regional policies and cohesion projects. The main goal is to understand whether or not EU’s communication efforts generate positive effects in terms of media presence, citizens’ awareness and appreciation, as well as a sense of identification with the EU and the European project. In order to accomplish these objectives, interviews with practitioners and members of civil society, on the one hand, and rhetoric and semantic analyses of EU publications, websites, and social media, on the other, will be conducted. A second activity aims at understanding the different meanings assigned to European cohesion and European identity. We will analyze discourse from different kinds of traditional and new media in order to reconstruct topics (e.g., immigration, development, innovation, or resilience), frames (e.g., immigration as a threat or opportunity), and sentiments (e.g., anger, empathy, or indifference) which altogether will give us an idea of the ‘media space’ of, and for, EU policy and identity. We will use topic modeling and other semantic-analytical tools to develop propositions about the impact that discursive practices in the media – and the rhetorical strategies employed – exert on citizens’ identification with the EU project and appreciation of regional policies.
Academic Staff:
Markus Hoellerer
Department: Institute for Organization Studies and Research Institute for Urban Management and Governance
Title: Phd / Full Professor
Role in PERCEIVE: Lead of WP3
Bio
Markus A. Höllerer is Professor for Public Management and Governance at WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, affiliated with the Research Institute for Urban Management and Governance and Senior Scholar in Organization Theory at UNSW Australia Business School, Sydney. His work is broadly anchored in the phenomenological tradition of organizational institutionalism.
Renate Meyer
Department: Institute for Organization Studies and Research Institute for Urban Management and Governance
Title: Phd / Full Professor
Role in PERCEIVE: Lead of WP5
Bio
Renate E. Meyer is the Chair of Organization Studies at WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, permanent Visiting Professor at the Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School and Co- Director of the Research Institute for Urban Management & Governance at WU. Her research focuses on changing forms of organization and governance, translation of novel management ideas, role identities, and urban governance challenges.
email: renate.meyer@wu.ac.at | Personal Website
Vitaliano Barberio
Department: Research Institute for Urban Management and Governance
Title: Phd / Post-doc researcher
Role in PERCEIVE: Participation mainly in WP3 and WP5
Bio
Vitaliano Barberio is post-doc research assistant at the Research Institute for Urban Management and Governance at WU University of Economics and Business, Vienna. Previous academic affiliations are with the University of Bologna (IT, PhD), Carnegie Mellon University, (USA, visiting) and University of Lugano (CH, Junior Research Fellow). His research focuses on the relationships between European policy and the emergence of European identity and identification, organizational and other collective identities.
Latest journal contributions by Vienna University of Economics and Business
Is the EU eurosceptic?
11/06/2019 | Vienna University of Economics and Business | Events, People
Here we are. PERCEIVE Final Conference is happening: project’s researchers are going to present the findings of their work in Brussels, on Wednesday June 19. Vitaliano Barberio from Vienna University of Economics and Business spills some insights some before the event.
Communicating Cohesion Policy: what is the impact on local audiences?
09/01/2019 | Vienna University of Economics and Business | Research | WP3
To what extent does policy communication produce and amplify meanings? How much does it affect the understanding of local audiences? We have looked at “awareness” of the policy and general “appreciation” of the EU as two related indicators of communication performance. Read more and download the short report curated by the Vienna University of Economics and Business.