The Reading Group operates within the Laboratory for the Study of Democracy (DemLab) of the School of Political Sciences in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, which, since its establishment in 2023, has served the research, educational, and academic needs related to the study of democracy—its normative foundations, historical development, conceptual frameworks, and institutional articulation and functioning, both diachronically and synchronically. The Reading Group began its own trajectory in October 2024, with the aim of understanding and highlighting the multifaceted significance of the democratic phenomenon, as well as assessing its current trajectory and possible future. To this end, it employs methodological tools drawn from a wide range of scientific fields, including, indicatively, political theory and philosophy, ideology critique, the study of representation, contemporary social theory, and modern and contemporary history. Beyond the collective and reading-centered endeavor, the Group’s objective is to approach contemporary political research through clear conceptual axes, robust theoretical and historical contextualization, and methodological pluralism. Its aim is to cultivate a reflective and critical political science capable of tracing, through research, both the phenomena that revitalize democracy and those that undermine it.

The following file contains the activity report of the Group’s first year and the schedule of meetings for the current year.

Απολογισμός – Ομάδα Ανάγνωσης Εργαστηρίου Μελέτης της Δημοκρατίας