Socires is an independent centre for social issues. Through various programmes, we explore what holds a society together and makes it liveable and viable.

We conduct research, organise symposiums and other meetings, produce podcasts, advise businesses and governments, write books and articles, organise roundtable discussions, and collaborate with universities and other knowledge institutions.
Socires is a non-profit foundation. We are able to do our work thanks to the generous support of funds, governments, businesses and individuals.

In a healthy society people feel heard, recognized and appreciated; incorporated into a community; significant part of a whole. For a long time, European societies were designed to attract people to their creative, cooperative and social capacities. This was done within various social practices: in personal life (family, neighborhood), social life (sport clubs, associations), public life (political parties, local associations), active life (company and union) and spiritual life (national community and church).

Within all these social practices, the same organisational principle was visible. They were "structures of meeting." These structures had effect on three levels of being human:

1. Humanizing → people found there recognition, self-development, craftsmanship
2. Socialising → People practiced there in responsibility and cooperation with others
3. Social → People experienced value for a greater whole, were included institutions and relationships

Over the past decades (eons), society has evolved in such a way that opportunities for meeting between people have been minimized and/or discouraged. In a society where people are not included in structures of encounter will increase anger, loneliness, fear and distrust. This also affects confidence in politics and institutions. This situation is now (increasingly) facing us. Extreme forms of populism, chauvinism, idealism and fatalism are over-corrections to this unease.

Socires strives for a society that has meeting structures as a organising principle. We focus on three levels (and try to address them in conjunction):

1. Social practices
   It is our ideal that social practices (from care and education, to banking, business and energy transition) should be used to engage in interaction, care and cooperation between stakeholders and their social relationships. We investigate new and classic societal practices on their societal potential and bring them to the attention of the public and relevant stakeholders. We do this with publications, advice, podcasts and other media.
2. Policy
   We want professionals and institutions to be made subsidiary and supportive to meeting structures. This is why we organise social dialogues between the actors who (should) care about the challenges we face. We focus on the conversation within and between institutions (the worlds of science, policy, civil society, education, politics, economy and international relations) and on the conversation between institutions and (new) social practices. We also organise various leadership programs for young professionals on major societal issues.
3. Thinking
   Science and public intelligence have a great public responsibility. We want to contribute to the building of an intellectual praxis that explains and researches the vital society within the Dutch (European) discourse. We are also aware of the geopolitical, economic and technological context within which vital society can be built (or threatened).

We do research ourselves but also work intensively with universities and other knowledge institutions. With the results we try to feed and stimulate the public debate, through lectures, symposia, books and other publications. We publish our own magazine twice a year.