The work of the project was organised in eight work packages
WP1 Key concepts. After developing the two key concepts, neo-traditionalism and neo-feudalism, we use them to capture the essence of social and cultural transformation in Central and Eastern Europe and the rise of right-wing populism. Our empirical case studies, on religion and nationalism, national mythology, connections between anti-migrant sentiments and neo-traditional interpretations of the national community, confirm their analytical value.
WP2 Participatory online conversation (ethnography). Our large-scale online conversation on East European populism, across different languages, was enriched with online ethnographic fieldwork in Poland, Czechia and Germany, which generated a large ethnographic corpus. In all three countries, we discover a high degree of both polarisation and emotional attachment to people’s identities. Our study revealed also that concrete concepts whose meanings are commonly imagined to be universal (for example, “freedom”) are deeply splintered and become carriers of meanings that are particularised and sometimes antithetical. The three country comparison confirmed the existence of a deep sense of fatigue and disappointment with governments.
WP3 Culture. We demonstrated that right-wing populists, particularly when they have power, make enormous efforts to capture as many institutions of cultural production as they can. Once they gain control over such institutions they exploit them to propagate a neo-traditional vision of the world that they also use to claim legitimacy for their power.
WP4 Politics. We constructed a large, comprehensible database of political and economic indicators relevant for the study of the rise of populism, that was then used to show that, for example, economic factors alone are insufficient to explain the rise of support for right-wing populism. We have also conducted a number of case studies, for example on: Czech populism, long-term populist trends in Yugoslav/post-Yugoslav politics, a comparison of regime performance and support for populist parties in CEE, and populist imageries in geopolitics.
WP5 Economy. The work in the economic package focused on two main themes: the causes of support for populist parties and politicians and the economic effects of populist rule. Our analysis of the economic roots and policy consequences of populism, relied heavily on the ‘demand’ and ‘supply’ distinction. Our approach to the effects of the populist rule was built on another key distinction between economic populism and political-ideological populism.
WP6: Foresight scenarios. This sub-project was designed to be primarily a tool for communication, reflection, and interaction. While scenarios are built on social science knowledge of causal processes in society, they provoke people to look into the future using knowledge from the past. Despite the external shocks (the Covid pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine) the project did achieve its goal of continuing conversations, in the project and beyond, about the future of populism. And it was successful in transmitting these insights also to external audiences, particularly during the very last engagement seminar.
WP7 Communication and dissemination. Despite COVID-related travel restrictions, we managed to disseminate our results to broad academic and non-academic audiences. In the second half of 2022, we organised or co-organised three major public events that engaged policymakers, public officials, civil society activists and a good number of interested citizens.
WP8 Management. The management team kept the project on track, often in creative ways, working in the extremely difficult and changing conditions brought on by the Covid pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
