Questions of freedom and responsibility go to the heart of our understanding of human beings. The urgency of these questions has increased as a result of major social problems such as climate change, social conflicts, rising healthcare costs and the growing gap between rich and poor. To what extent do individuals, organisations and the government bear responsibility to do something about these problems? What does this moral obligation, or lack thereof, mean for the balance between self-reliance and collective care for each other? And how can we promote that self-reliance, as well as that collective care? We now know a lot about how the demarcation of responsibilities promotes cooperation. Think material incentives and sanctions, or social control within informal networks. However, contemporary informal, formal and virtual connections are more volatile than in the past, while many collective responsibilities ̶ such as a clean neighbourhood or productivity in a company ̶ actually require sustainable forms of cooperation. The question is how material incentives and social control optimise both volatile and durable cooperative relationships for the benefit of collective responsibility and cooperation.
Connecting character
This question connects philosophy, psychology, sociology, law, neuroscience and economics. At issue are interpretations of the relationship between concepts such as freedom, free will and (individual and collective) responsibility. Also needed is an answer to the question of how freedom and responsibility relate to self-reliance and participation: As a citizen, do I have the responsibility to be self-reliant? Am I free to participate, or do I have a duty to participate? An interpretation of what is morally right is indispensable in this context; herein lies the normative aspect of the question. Design aspects we see in the relationship to national policy frameworks. An unambiguous understanding of freedom and responsibility underlies a vision of society, as propagated by political parties. Such a vision translates into policy frameworks for the social domain and health care. Through applied and practice-oriented research in these domains, innovative solutions and applications can be found to promote resilience of individuals and society, for example.
