How do democracies react and cope as the COVID-19 crisis unfolds and with what effects? This is the core question we ask in the HOPE project - “How Democracies Cope with COVID-19: A Data-Driven Approach”.

The HOPE project constitutes an unprecedented research project which examines the interrelationship between:

1. the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic
2. the decisions of governments and international organisations
3. the decisions of media and social media landscapes
4. citizens’ behavior and well-being

To this end, we utilize the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic is unfolding in the middle of the “big data” revolution. For the first time in human history, we are able to measure with extreme precision and time-resolution how governments and citizens react (and with what consequences) during an extremely severe crisis.

Role of Center for Humanities Computing

HOPE is an interdisciplinary research project and has integrated leading data driven environments in Denmark, including Interacting Minds Centre and Center for Humanities Computing at Aarhus University, SODAS at the University of Copenhagen, and DTU Compute at the Technical University of Denmark

The research team from the Aarhus University collects both quantitative and qualitative data on people’s behaviour during the corona crisis. Through surveys, the team collects data on citizen attitudes and concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through ethnographic studies, the team collects qualitative data on how citizens experience the corona crises.