The Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) highlights the researchers behind their IMPULE grant projects: what drives their work, why it matters now, and the impact they hope to make. In this edition, Dr Brunilda Pali speaks about her project, which explores the important role that small acts of care, solidarity, dialogue, and social repair play in the face of political division and democratic erosion.

In the Basque Country, a range of restorative justice practices have emerged as powerful tools for facilitating coexistence. In the aftermath of the decades of violence, the distinct absence of a formal transitional justice framework has left Basque society with the challenge of confronting cultural and institutional silence, preserving and constructing collective memory, and rebuilding social connections at the grassroots level.