How strong is solidarity among European citizens and the member states of the European Union?

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Jürgen Gerhards
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: from 2015 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 172394079

The crisis of the European banking system, and of the Eurozone, and the economic crisis in some of the member states of the European Union have put the solidarity between the member states to a test. While many scientists and political actors assume that solidarity exists on the nation state level only and cannot be reached on a European level, other scholars have contesting views. They suggest that the prerequisites for a European solidarity already exist, concluding that the process of deepening and democratization of the European Union can move forward.In this project we pose the following two research questions: 1) To what extent do citizens of a member state of the EU show solidarity to citizens from another member state and how does this level of European solidarity relate to national and global solidarity? 2) Which factors are relevant for explaining differences regarding attitudes towards European solidarity? Can the supporters and opponents of European solidarity be determined based on their social position, and their ideological standing and does this then lead to cleavages boosting political conflicts? A standardized survey conducted in five member states of the European Union will serve as the empirical basis for the research. We are thereby not interested in analyzing the social field of collective actors trying to create a new definition of transnational solidarity. Instead, we will analyze average citizens' meaning of solidarity, and look at how the social space of solidarity is structured.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 1539: Horizontal Europeanisation - An Emerging Social Entity Between National and Global Scales
• Co-Investigator: Zsofia Ignácz, Ph.D.