Project description
Residential mobility in established democracies
Polarisation over cultural issues and the rise of the populist radical right signify a realignment in electoral politics, characterised by a confrontation between parochial and cosmopolitan values. The ERC-funded RESPOL project introduces residential mobility as a critical but underexplored factor in these developments. RESPOL theorises how residential mobility shapes political attitudes and electoral realignments by integrating insights from psychology and social capital theory. Residential mobility, three times more common than international migration, is thought to foster individualism and tolerance through diverse interactions, while immobility should reinforce in-group/out-group divides. Using cross- and subnational data, it systematically tests these ideas at individual and aggregate levels, offering new insights into the dynamics of political conflict in established democracies.
Objective
Polarization over cultural issues and the rise of the populist radical right indicate a fundamental realignment of electoral politics in established democracies around a new political cleavage characterized by an antagonism between parochial and cosmopolitan values. RESPOL introduces residential mobility as a fundamental determinant of these developments. In advancing a novel research agenda on residential mobility, the project also integrates and provides new perspectives on existing research.
Residential mobility exceeds the volume of international migration, on which much research on the rise of the radical right focuses, by a factor of three. Although its significance is recognized in demography and psychology, residential mobility has yet to be widely recognized in political science. Psychological research considers residential mobility an essential driver of cultural change and has shown how mobile communities foster individualism and tolerance through frequent interactions with strangers. In contrast, immobile communities promote stability and stronger social ties but intensify perceptions of in-group and out-group differences. The relevance of these observations has been highlighted in the wake of `Brexit,' framed by some as a confrontation between rooted `somewheres' and mobile `anywheres,' but the political impact of residential mobility lacks systematic study.
Drawing on research in psychology and social capital theory, the project will develop a comprehensive theoretical account of how residential mobility affects political attitudes and behavior to explain electoral realignment in established democracies. The project will use innovative combinations of cross- and sub-national data on residential mobility and political outcomes to systematically test its theoretical propositions at the individual and aggregate levels. In doing so, RESPOL promises to significantly advance our understanding of the evolution of political conflict in electoral democracies.
We postpone the start of the project until after 30 September 2025. In this case there would be no ambiguity about my engagement by Chemnitz University of Technology. Regarding the groundbreaking nature of the project: As outlined in my proposal, to date there are only three journal publications in demography/geography and one journalistic book on the potential influence of residential mobility on political opinions or voting choices, none of which are able to provide the causal evidence that my project aims to provide. I am not aware of any new publications that have come out since I submitted my proposal. As outlined in my proposal, I am only aware of two unpublished working papers on the political effects of residential mobility, one of which I co-authored. The author of the other working paper seems to be more interested in the effects of residential mobility on civic and political engagement than on political attitudes and voting or electoral realignment more broadly. As for the specifics of my research proposal, nothing in the research design requires that the project begin at any particular point in time. The proposal calls for unique survey work to be conducted in Germany, Sweden, and the United States. Given the 5-year duration of the project and the maximum 4-year term lengths for national legislatures and/or executive branches in Germany, Sweden, and the U.S. I am guaranteed to be able to cover at least one national election per country case study with a unique survey, regardless of the start date of the project. In summary, I am optimistic that a later start date would not negatively impact the groundbreaking nature of the project.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences sociology demography
- social sciences political sciences political transitions elections
- social sciences political sciences government systems democracy
- social sciences psychology
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
09111 Chemnitz
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.