DESIRE performs critical research into the political-democratic nature of societal processes and their discursive-significatory dimensions.

Crucial within DESIRE's remit is the study of the logics of power, how power strategies are developed and resisted and how signification intervenes into these power logics. DESIRE's areas of interest thus include the many societal fields where meaning is produced and circulated, including the media sphere, the sphere of cultural institutions (including museums, heritage sites and theatres) and the sphere of politics. Within these areas of interest, DESIRE analyses the role of the discursive-significatory. In order to study these discursive-significatory dimensions of the power logics, a variety of methods are used and combined, e.g., critical discourse analysis, visual analysis, rhetorical analysis, discourse-theoretical analysis, and narrative analysis.

DESIRE brings together an interdisciplinary group of researchers from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium), Univerza v Ljubljani (Slovenia), Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic), University of Essex (UK), and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), as well as affiliate members from other institutions, to support their joint research activities.

DESIRE is chaired by Benjamin De Cleen (VUB) and its management committee further consists of Ilija Tomanic Trivundza (Univerza v Ljubljani), Nico Carpentier (Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic), Jason Glynos (University of Essex) and Yannis Stavrakakis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki).