RED-SPINEL’s project management team is delighted to both cap RED-SPINEL’s first full year of activities and ushering in the festive season with the publication of its’ inaugural Newsletter.

The last part of RED-SPINEL’s Communiccation and Dissemination Plan, the Newsletter is to serve both an internal as well as a wider audiences. These short publications are to provide interested parties – both across and beyond the consortium – with a quick overview of the latest RED-SPINEL news.

This issue recalls some of the defining features of the project so far, and presents the initial findings of the project after one year of joint research. It provides a snap shot illustrating the community’s efforts – past, present, and future; while also highlighted the open access resources the project is producing and publishing via its’ website.

Central to this issue of the RED-SPINEL newsletter is the work accomplished in terms of re-conceptualization of the notion of ‘Dissensus’ in light of current trends and cirses. Crucially professor R. Coman and N. Brack provide an original Think Piece detailing the consortium’s conceptual work and thinking so far.  Ultimately, this open access publication offers an empirical definition and a typology
of dissensus to guide RED-SPINEL’s future empirical research.

Equally, foundational are the other RED-SPINEL working papers published so far. As such the project’s series of Open Access Working Papers is slowly taken shape, with thtree issues published so far and a further two scheduled for early 2024.

Besides the aforementioned substantive elements, the newsletter is also a opportunity to (re-)discover the project’s authorities as well as the community of early-stage researchers RED-SPINEL has successfully atttracted so far. Both thanks to the group of academics and experts involved through RED-SPINEL’s partner institutions and the early-stage researchers across four countries, RED-SPINEL has succesfully attracted so far, the RED-SPINEL community is rapidly expanding and consolidating.

Lastly, the newsletter highlights a number of key activities and achievements over the past year. It also highlights the other communication platforms at RED-SPINEL’s disposal – e.g. Podcast, social media, website, …

We hope this introductory newslettter will peak your interest in RED-SPINEL while also wishing you and your loved ones an excellent end-of-year season, and we look foward to the opprtunities 2024 will bring.