Building the Knowledge and Skills for Shared Society

The Frieze Center for Shared Society at the University of Haifa develops research, teaching, and practical tools for navigating diversity and reducing social polarization. Directed by Prof. Uriel Simonsohn, with Dr. Ran Kuttner as Academic Director, the Center connects academic knowledge with the needs of public institutions, communities, and civil-society organizations.

Its central goal is to make knowledge about shared society accessible to broad audiences and to equip students and professionals with the skills needed to work constructively across differences of identity, worldview, language, religion, and social background.

Why This Work Matters

Social and political polarization weakens trust and makes cooperation across group boundaries increasingly difficult. In Israel, where public institutions, workplaces, universities, and municipalities serve highly diverse populations, the capacity to understand competing perspectives and manage disagreement is a core professional and civic skill.

Core Areas of Activity

• Shared Society Index: developing a research-based framework for measuring social relations, trust, polarization, and the conditions that support a shared society.
• University curriculum: integrating shared-society perspectives and practical competencies into courses across disciplines, with initial pilots in communication, sociology, and political science.
• Research group: supporting interdisciplinary scholarship on social cohesion, polarization, identity, and relations between communities.
• Mediation and professional training: developing practical capacities for managing disagreement and engaging diverse communities, including an interfaith mediation certificate program.
• Round tables: bringing researchers and practitioners together around urgent issues such as culturally sensitive care, violence in Arab society, Haredi civic integration, and the role of research institutes in advancing shared society.
• Public and municipal partnerships: working with civic leaders, municipalities, public bodies, and civil-society organizations to translate research into policy and practice.

A University-Wide Platform

The Center approaches shared society not as a stand-alone topic but as a dimension of professional excellence. Future educators, policymakers, health professionals, technologists, managers, and researchers all need to understand how social identities affect communication, access, decision-making, and institutional trust.

By combining measurement, teaching, professional development, and public engagement, the Frieze Center seeks to make the University of Haifa a leading hub for the study and practice of shared society.

Visit the official Frieze Center website or learn about the complementary interfaith work of the Haifa Laboratory for Religious Studies.