Title Affiliations Abstract "Who feels integrated?An interdisciplinary analysis of patterns of identification and participation of three immigrant groups in Flanders." "Center for Ethics, Centre for Migration and Intercultural Studies (CeMIS)" "By means of a descriptive and analytical social scientific research as well as by means of a normative political-philosophical research, this interdisciplinary research project contributes to the knowledge of strategies and patterns of integration of the members of three minority groups (Turkish, Polish and Senegalese people) in Flanders. The core questions of this project are to which extend 1) integration is (paradoxically) linked to the recognition of differences; 2) strategies and patterns of integration are being influenced by specific features of demarcation (religion, ethnic and racial features, immigration history)." "SRP (Groeiers): Gendering ethnicity & ethnicizing gender in politics & policy" "Karen Celis" "Centre of Expertise on Gender, Diversity and Intersectionality, Philosophy - Moral Sciences, Metajuridica, Institute for European Studies, Political Science" "Gender and race/ethnicity are too often conceived of as operating in isolation from each other; this means ignoring the fact that members of ethnic minorities always have a gender and, vice versa, that men and women always have an ethnic background (i.e. they are considered as 'native' or as 'other' thanks to a history of migration). In general, politics and policies depart from an assumption that the subject of policy is 'male'. If the subject of policy should happen to be female the assumption is that she is 'native'. On the other hand the assumption in policies about ethnic minorities is frequently that they are male. Often within-group inequalities are (re)produced and (re)inforced in and through politics and policies that are the net result of this 'ethnic blindness' in the case of gender and of 'gender blindness' in the case of ethnic minorities. For instance, equality policy tools such as gender quotas tend to favour native women, while reserved seats for ethnic minority often favour ethnic minority men. Migrant and integration politics and policy risk missing the societal reality that migrant populations are increasingly female with implications for both masculinities and femininities. The motivations, tracks and endpoints of migration and integration are gendered. Equally, gender equality politics and policy are in danger of misconceiving what is at stake for ethnic minority women and men and misunderstanding the key sources and dynamics of gender inequality that affect them. As European societies become more heterogeneous, the need to understand these interactions and unintended policy consequences is both societally and scientifically important. Today's newly mixed societies, both in terms of the position of women and in terms of the ethnic groups involved, offer unprecedented possibilities for better theoretical understanding of conflicts and inequalities. This research programme is concerned with the interrelatedness and intersection of two central discrimination mechanisms, gender and ethnicity. It critically investigates the ethnic dimension of gender politics and policies, and the gender dimension of ethnic minority politics and policies. The overall scientific objective is to establish how and why the interaction between gender and ethnicity affects the democratic quality, inclusiveness and effectiveness of politics and policy and its ability to reach such social goals as 'equality'. As a means to enhance theory building in the study of the interrelation between gender and ethnicity in European politics and policy, comparative analyses inquiring how differences between national settings, policy levels or sub-groups can be explained will be undertaken. More concretely, it has two main objectives each of them underpinned by several empirical research questions: 1. Furthering our empirical knowledge and theories about participation, political representation and decision-making at the intersection of gender and ethnicity. Research questions: * If any, what is the interaction between descriptive representation (i.e. presence in political institutions and civil society) of women and ethnic minorities: do they go hand in hand, or are there trade-offs? * Does descriptive representation of women and/or ethnic minorities increase the substantive representation of migrant women (i.e. the representation of their interests)? Does the intersection of ethnicity and gender vary depending on migration history or ethnic identity? * Do ethnic minority organisations and/or women's organisations lobby the state in the interest of ethnic minority women? And do they do so in a different and/or complementary manner? What is the role of organizations that combine gender and ethnicity (ethnic women's organizations)? 2. Furthering our empirical knowledge and theories about the gendered implications of ethnic minority (integration, migration) policies and the implication of gender policies for ethnic minorities, and their mutual interactions. Research questions: * What is the impact of policies aiming at furthering the position of women and gender equality on ethnic minority women (in comparison to ethnic majority women) and ethnic minority men? * What is the impact of policies for ethnic minorities on ethnic minority women (in comparison to ethnic minority men)? * What are the dominant frames underpinning both type of policies, and to which extent, why and how do they include or exclude ethnic minority women's concerns and interests? * What differences do differences between ethnic groups make in these interactions (in terms of different histories of migration and colonialism, sizes, socio-economic positions and cultures)?" "On the same campus? Acculturation, discrimination and intergroup relations between Turkish and Belgian descent university students" "Ides Nicaise" "Professional Learning & Development, Corporate Training and Lifelong Learning" "Much research has been devoted to investigating the acculturation processes of the children of immigrants in Western Europe. One particular focus has been on the acculturation of children of Turkish immigrants, with a significant degree of scholarly attention paid to debates on integration and education. The present dissertation offers a contribution to this scholarly debate by analysing the acculturation experiences and perspectives of both Turkish and Belgian descent students in higher education in Flanders (the northern part of Belgium).  The review of the state of the art in acculturation research presented in the first part of the dissertation reveals that several blind spots remain. First, the field has overlooked the acculturation processes of ethnic majority individuals. This is puzzling since acculturation is defined as a mutual adaptation process. This narrow focus on ethnic minority experiences limits our understanding of acculturation across society by overlooking the way ethnic majority groups think and act about intergroup contact. Second, acculturation research has focused little on a very salient factor that likely hinders acculturation in educational settings—namely, minority student experiences ofdiscrimination, whether from peers in the classroom, or educators. Third, the research has tended to overlook the role of peer relations—namely, contact and friendship—in advancing or impeding successful acculturation. While clearly salient in the acculturation process, limited scholarly attention has been given to understanding what drives or hinders students’ interpersonal outreach and friendship formation in multi-ethnic educational settings. Finally, acculturation studies in Western Europe have paid scant attention to the institutional context—namely, the way that university policies affect how ethnic minority and majority students experience acculturation in the classroom (and on-campus more generally). This dissertation seeks to address these limitations in the field of acculturation research and shed much-needed light on how students in the specific domain of higher education experience and navigate intercultural exigencies.  The second part of the dissertation presents the empirical chapters. These chapters are based on data collected through in-depth qualitative interviews with Turkish and Belgian descent students in one higher education setting in Flanders. Focusing on the acculturation experiences and views of these students offers several insights. First, despite acculturation being defined as a mutual adaptation process, members of ethnic majority groups consider it responsibility for immigrants and their descendants, perpetuating an asymmetrical understanding of acculturation. Second, Turkish Belgian students experience various forms of discrimination and microaggressions by teachers and peers across the secondary school and higher education. These findings strongly suggest that the very institutions charged with facilitating student acculturation reproduce a range of discrimination experiences for ethnic minority students. Third, while acculturation research is often focused on the implications of acculturation strategies for intergroup outcomes, the findings from the empirical studies underline that ethnic minority students and those from the ethnic majority differ in the way they both think about intergroup contact and approach it in practice—namely, reaching out to peers and forming collegial relations and friendships. Homophily preferences, social exclusion, and the distinct meeting opportunities afforded by the relatively more ethnically diverse university setting are the key drivers of patterns of friendship development—both inside and outside the ethnic group—for Turkish Belgian students. For Belgian descent students, in contrast, the findings highlight barriers stemming from intergroup anxiety, negative assumptions, and stereotypes that underpin the lack of open and meaningful intergroup relations for this cohort. Finally, the findings indicate that a range of institutional policies and practices—including around acculturation itself—are central to the experience of acculturation on campus, often acting to hinder successful acculturation by excluding ethnic minority students. The results of this dissertation have significant implications for policy and practice. First, the findings highlight the need for a greater focus on equity. In particular, both institutional policies/practices and patterns of interpersonal contact are failing ethnic minority students, who experience discrimination on both counts. This limits the chances of successful intergroup outcomes on college and university campuses. Second, the findings show that encouraging successful intergroup contact and engagement requires that enduring experiences of discrimination and exclusion among ethnic minority students be addressed and intergroup knowledge, sensitivity and empathy within the ethnic majority promoted. Third, all university and college policies must reflect and advance full inclusion—and discourage discrimination, including indirect or latent forms—so that students’ distinct interests and cultural backgrounds are recognized, valued, and promoted. Suggested steps include promoting diversity in the student body and staff, providing students with spaces for cultural learning and expression, incorporating diverse experiences and views in the curriculum, and putting greater emphasis on fighting discrimination.   " "Dual radicalization? The impact of resentment, misunderstandings and liberal values on radical belief systems among majority and minority group members" "Bart Meuleman" "Centre for Sociological Research" "This project aims to understand the emergence of radical belief systems among native majority (radical right) and Muslim minority group members (radical Islamism). We develop a model of dual radicalization: radical belief systems of majority and Muslim minority group members function as mirror-images that may mutually reinforce each other, warranting a joint investigation and relational perspective. We do this by investigating the interplay between majority and minority radical belief systems and the (support for) radical behavior as a result of group position in terms of (1) feelings of resentment, (2) group-based threat, (3) intra- and intergroup misunderstandings (i.e., perceived social norms and meta-perceptions), and (4) the applicability and conditionality of liberal values (such as gender equality, freedom of speech or freedom of religion). Importantly, we test this conceptual model in both majority and minority populations (i.e. Turkish and Moroccan Belgians). For this project we will gather survey data of a probability sample of 1.050 Turkish and Moroccan Belgians. This new data will be coupled to the already funded Belgian National Election Study 2019 to make comparisons across minority and majority citizens possible." "TRajectories of Acculturation and Contact in Ethnically diverse Social networks" "Karen Phalet" "Social and Cultural Psychology" "Across Europe even high-achieving children of immigrants are at risk of underperforming and disengaging from school, with long-lasting consequences for their future life chances in today’s knowledge economy (OECD, 2012). Ethnic inequalities are not fully explained by individual abilities or family resources on the side of minority students (Heath & Brinbaum, 2014); and cross-national comparison suggests the key role of different intergroup climates, with less unequal achievement in less segregated and more integrationist societies and school systems (Alba, Sloan & Sperling, 2011; Crul, Schneider & Lelie, 2013). Accordingly, Belgium is among the most unequal countries with large ‘ethnic penalties’ on early achievement and a widening gap between minority and majority careers (Baysu & Phalet, 2012), while Britain evinces smaller penalties, a narrowing gap, and even ‘ethnic premiums’ with some minorities outperforming the majority (Heath & Brinbaum, 2014). Against this backdrop, this proposal focuses on the school environment as proximal intergroup context of minority trajectories. Looking beyond school composition effects (Goldsmith, 2011), we will examine daily intergroup contact and acculturation processes in ethnically diverse school-based networks as a promising yet under-researched explanation of the diverging trajectories of minority and majority students. Moreover, we study teachers as ‘diversity managers’ who define students’ intergroup contact and acculturation experiences in diverse networks of students." "Unpacking the Black Box of Emotional Acculturation." "Batja Gomes de Mesquita" "Social and Cultural Psychology" "The current project aims to gain more insight into emotional acculturation, that is the process in which immigrant minorities patterns of emotional experience change as a function of their engagement in a new cultural context. My PhD-research provided first evidence for the existence of this phenomenon and for its associations with both relational and psychological well-being. However, the exact nature of emotional acculturation is still largely a black box. First, because we previously established this process and its positive effect on well-being by calculating immigrants fit with respect to the patterning of a broad range of emotions, we do not know yet if all or only specific (groups of) emotions change in the process of acculturation, nor whether changes in some emotions matter more than others for well-being. Second, as a first approach to emotional acculturation, we excluded emotions that had different meanings across cultures before calculating emotional fit. A next step would be to look at the acculturation of precisely those emotions that are non-equivalent to begin with, and to see if the meaning of these emotions shifts during the process of acculturation. Third, we have found that, on average, emotions acculturate, but we do not know whether the new and old emotional repertoires hybridize or whether they co-exist. By re-analyzing existing data-sets and the data of an already conducted experiment, the current project thus aims to shed light on i) which specific (groups of) emotions acculturate; ii) whether acculturation only affects the patterning or also the meaning of emotions and iii) whether immigrants form hybrids of the old and new emotional patterns or switch between the two." "A Cultural Psychological Approach to Acculturation." "Jozefien De Leersnyder" "Social and Cultural Psychology" "In the current research program, I further develop and empirically test a cultural psychological approach to acculturation that centers on the notion of ‘cultural fit’ – i.e., the extent to which an individual’s pattern of psychological functioning is similar to the typical pattern of others in the socio-cultural context. I start from the cultural psychological insights that people are encouraged and rewarded to fit their socio-cultural context. I then bring these insights into acculturation psychology to argue that when people migrate to another socio-cultural context not only their explicitly endorsed cultural attitudes and identities may change – as has been the focus of traditional acculturation research – but that their new cultural engagements may also affect the ways in which they feel, think and act, such that immigrant minorities may come to fit their new/other socio-cultural context. Over the next 10 years, I plan to focus on four research lines to empirically test this novel theory, thereby drawing on both my expertise and previously gathered preliminary evidence in the domain of emotion. Whereas Research Line 1 aims to document the acculturation of a wider range of psychological processes and Research Line 2 aims to map the complex interplay between the acculturation of explicit (e.g., identity) and implicit (e.g., emotion) domains across time and across different social contexts, Research Line 3 focuses on the micro-processes of socialization that occur in intercultural interactions, and that may account for psychological acculturation and cultural fit. A final research line cuts across all other three to address the question how acculturation – in its complex, multi-faceted and context-dependent form – is associated with minorities’ well-being and educational outcome." "A Cultural Psychological Approach to Acculturation: Developing tools to capture psychological acculturation and exploring the micro-processes that account for cultural fit in intercultural interactions." "Jozefien De Leersnyder" "Social and Cultural Psychology" "The current research is part of a bigger research program in which I further develop and empirically test a cultural psychological approach to acculturation. This approach centers on the notion of ‘cultural fit’ – i.e., the extent to which an individual’s pattern of psychological functioning is similar to the typical pattern of others in the socio-cultural context. In the coming two years, I intend to focus on two of the four research lines that I outlined to test this novel theory on acculturation. Firstly, I will develop measures to capture cultural changes in cognition, motivation and self-concept in both majority and minority youth in Belgium. Secondly, I plan to explore some of the micro-processes that occur in intercultural interactions and that account for increases in cultural fit, especially in the domain of emotion. For instance, I will conduct an experiment testing to what extent emotional fit in majority-minority dyads is a function of negotiating ‘common ground’ on the meaning of situations." "Sabbatical Peter Vermeersch: Minority activism in Perilous Times: The Politics of Being Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian in Poland" "Peter Vermeersch" "Leuven International and European Studies (LINES)" "This sabbatical period is intended to enable the development of a new research project that aims to examine how relationships between minorities and majorities change in the context of a changing international context. In particular, this project aims to study the complex political and social positions of the Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian minority communities in Poland since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.When scholars study the politics of national minorities in Central and Eastern Europe, they often focus on the long-term effects of historical ethnic ties across state boundaries. The goal of both national minority activists and governments of related states is often to further develop and strengthen such cross-border ties. However, this is different for people who have fled their country of origin for political reasons. A research stay in Poland will enable me to do the necessaryconduct preliminary fieldwork and allow time to study the complex patterns of minority activism currently unfolding just beyond the borders of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. Many immigrants, refugees and older minority groups engage in activism in or around minority identity. Through collaboration with colleagues in Poland, fieldwork visits and attending events organized by activists, I want to gain insight into how minority activists' view of their homeland has changed in recent times, and what their position is towards the Polish host state, society and government." "The transformation of the socio-economic left-right cleavage? Voting behand changing attitudes towards economy and social policies (1990-2015)." "Marc Swyngedouw" "Centre for Sociological Research" "The aim of this project is to investigate whether and how contemporary societal processes induced by globalization are transforming Western European political spaces. Concretely, we focus on the re-articulation of the socio-economic left-right cleavage, and its consequences for attitude patterns and voting behaviour in European electorates. Theoretical background: Liquid modernity - Contemporary society is characterized by a de-closure and de-structuring of the social contract, the cultural compromise and the political cleavages of organized modernity (Wagner, 1994; Wimmer, 2002; Bartolini, 2005; Ferrera, 2005; Abts, 2012). During the apex of bounded structuring, the tri-partite of trade unions, employers and government agreed on a social pact to pursue economic growth and generalized welfare (Castel, 2003). The national growth state was a class compromise balancing the individualism and inequality of market capitalism with the universalism and collective interests of emancipatory democracy (Boix, 2003), and at the same time created strong political bonds between lower classes and mass parties representing their interests and grievances (Ferrera, 2005). However, since the end of the 1970s all West European welfare states are confronted with massive challenges de-bounding and de-structuring the social-economic, cultural and political equilibriums of organized modernity. (1) The enduring crisis of organized capitalism and the resulting financial constraints have initiated a reform of welfare state provisions from a passive, security and redistribution-centred approach to an active, individualized and opportunity-centred welfare shifting the responsibility more and more from state to individual (Lash & Urry, 1987; Rosanvallon, 2000; Taylor-Gooby, 2011). (2) Increased migration flows challenge the cultural compromise which limits the social contract to national citizens. The community of solidarity is opened up, extending the collective benefits beyond the boundaries of the national group (Wimmer, 2002). (3) The shift towards a secularized and individualized society has weakened the integration capacity of imperative traditional and collective identities (like social class or religious denomination) that provided the basis for organized and pillarized party democracy (Bartolini & Mair, 1990; Manin, 1997). In essence, the frozen political cleavages dominating domestic politics since WWII left-right; church-state; and centre/periphery are becoming less salient or fundamentally transformed. In general, we observe the transformation of organized modernity into liquid modernity as a consequence of the de-bounding of the external boundaries of the national state and the internal de-structuring of the frozen cleavages. The internal order of the pre-existing bounded space of the nation state is subject to increasing challenges and is gradually destabilized by the interference of external and competing authority structures (globalization and European integration) as well as by the transition from collective identity to individual subject (individualization). Consequently, significant resources are withdrawn from old institutions, while new conflicts emerge. Substantial parts of the electorate especially among the working class voting for Christian-democratic and social-democratic parties- experience these transformations as an unfair violation of the unwritten social contract by their previous political patrons (Swyngedouw, 2000). The loosening up of the bonds between lower classes and mass parties has far-reaching consequences for party systems: this voter-party dealignment of traditional partisan groups - e.g. youngsters and lower educated, unskilled workers - results frequently in fragmented multipartyism. Transformation of left-right divides - In their pioneering study Kriesi et al. (2008) argue that globalization affects the scope and the content of political conflicts by creating a new structural conflict between winners and losers. Concretely, their study describes that the existing dimension(s) of cultural conflict are re-articulated and re-organized in terms of a new integration-demarcation cleavage (Kriesi et. al, 2006; 2012), opposing authoritarian particularism to libertarian universalism. Especially populist radical right and green parties have successfully mobilized this new cultural dimension of the existing left-right divide, while the electoral fortune of mainstream social-democratic, Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative parties can only be weakly explained by this transformed cleavage (Swyngedouw, 1994; Bornschier, 2010; Abts, 2012). The electoral (mis)fortune of the traditional parties seems to be explained much more by economic and welfare issues (Delezal & Hutter, 2012). Yet, current understanding of the role of the transformed socio-economic left-right divide in times of liquid modernity remains limited. Political sociology continues focusing mainly on the emergence and the effects of the new cultural cleavage, while the fundamental question of attitudinal change towards welfare state and socio-economic policies as well as its effects on the electoral (mis)fortunes of established and challenging political parties is neglected (see exceptions on welfare state: Svallfors, 2007; 2012; van Oorschot & Meuleman, 2012). Implicitly, most studies assume that the post WWII social contract is not fundamentally transformed and questioned, or at least does not have significant electoral consequences. We believe that this assumption is untenable. Globalization, European integration and individualization have undermined the established principles linked to the bounded structuring of the national growth state. In particular, the contemporary era marked by growing inequality (OECD, 2008) combined with the 2008 financial crisis could be conceived as a new critical juncture bringing the neoliberal consensus on elite level more profoundly up for discussion, while the welfare state reforms in a context of growing social inequality could result in another new structural conflict. This context leads to a re-articulation ofthe state interventionism versus neoliberalism cleavage in terms of demarcation versus integration, whereby the position of universalist and inclusive egalitarianism is opposed to a particularistic and exclusionist egalitarianism (Derks, 2004; van der Waal et al. 2010; Meuleman & Wets 2011). The focal point of the public discussion shifts towards social citizenship, i.e. the scope and boundaries of social solidarity as well as the criteria of deservingness (control, need, reciprocity and identity) (van Oorschot, 2000; Mau, 2003). Political mobilization of emerging conflicts The re-organization of the socio-economic left-right divide in terms of integration vs. demarcation is strengthened by two profound changes in the social structure of advanced post-industrial societies: (1) a shrinking low skilled working class and a growing overlap between old working class and ethnic minorities (ethno-stratification); and (2) an increasing diversification of the growing middle class in different class fractions based on their sector of employment and factor endowments (declining petit bourgeoisie; new middle class of social-cultural professionals; a rising new economic class of managers). These transformations of social structure in hard times of economic crisis create new groups of winners and losers who constitute new latent political potentials ready for the articulation of their conflicting (collective) socio-economic interests by political parties. Especially, ethnic minority working class members are expected to develop more radical and universal views on redistributive policies and welfare provisions than the so-called native working class (Phalet et al. 2005). Parties position themselves in the restructured two-dimensional space spanned by the transformed economic and cultural dimension. In electoral terms, we argue that political parties who mobilize the losers of modernization are not doing it only in cultural and political terms, but also in economic terms. Until now, however, attitudes towards socio-economic issues and social policies are not incorporated explicitly in explanations of changing electoral outcomes. This neglect is unfortunate, since electoral outcomes and recent reforms of welfare state provisions are not only constrained by socio-economic and institutional factors, but are also affected by citizens welfare attitudes in which policy makers operate (Brooks & Manza, 2006). Research objectives - Building further on the seminal work of Kriesi et al. (2006; 2008; 2012), our study will examine the impact of the crisis of organized capitalism and the recent breakdown in the neoliberal consensus resulting from the global fiscal crisis on socio-economic attitudes as well as the impact of these social policy preferences on voting behaviour. We intend to focus predominantly on the changes at the demand side (voters), while Kriesi et al. are investigating mainly the transformation of the supply side (parties) in Western Europe. Our project compares in a longitudinaltrend study electoral spaces and conflict structures for the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, but with particular focus on Belgium as an unique and strategic research site. Belgium has one national social welfare system, while it is characterized by two rather independent party systems (De Winter, Swyngedouw & Dumont, 2006) with a different composition. This trend study will be supplemented with an international comparative study of Western European countries (including countries from the south and north of Europe, excluding Eastern European countries). We distinguish five main research objectives. (1) The first objective is to develop further an analytical theory of the transformation of political space and its restructured cultural and economic dimensions, relating it to the theories of the crisis of organized modernity and new cleavage theory. (2) The second objective is to investigate across time (1990-2015) the relationship between new cultural attitudes and new attitudes towards economy and social policies in different sociological strata of the Belgian electorate. In fact, we try to trace the changes in cleavage structure and in so-called cleavage coalitions within the electorate defined by their position in the re-structured two-dimensional space and its identifiable social basis. Special attention will be given to the effect of the 2008 global financial crisis and its aftermath. (3) As political cleavages are not merely reflections of social divisions (demand side), but have always be organized and articulated by political parties (supply side), the third research objective is to investigate the stability and changes in policy views of parties on taxes, state intervention, welfare state and income redistribution by means of collected media data and the party manifesto data in the period 1990-2015 across selected European countries. (4) The fourth objective is to link these results (supply side) to attitudes towards income inequality and welfare state (demand side) within an international trend perspective in different welfare state regimes. (5) The fifth objective is particularly focused on the socio-economic attitudes of the low skilled working class comparing the native working class with the new working class of ethnic minorities in regard to socio-economic attitudes. In essence, we expect that given the assumption that differential changes in attitudes towards the scope, boundaries and criteria of social solidarity as well as state intervention have an effect on cleavage positions and could be mobilized politically this study can help to explain the persistent position on a high level of the social-democratic party in Wallonia as well as the significant and deeply rooted changes in Flemish party system during last two decades, i.e. the structural decline of the social-democratic, Christian-democratic and liberal parties, the rise and fall of the extreme right and the recent breakthrough of the conservative neoliberal Flemish nationalist party. Data and methodology - The longitudinal hypotheses will be tested using the existing Belgian federal election surveys based on random samples out of the national register (1991-1995-1999-2003-2007-2010). We will collect a new random sample survey for Belgium related to the upcoming federal elections of 2014. To investigate the ethno-stratification hypothesis we will supplement an additional booster sample of low skilled natives and ethnic minority voters to the 2014 survey. For the comparative study, we hope to use the integrated national data bases on electoral behaviour from the COST action The True European Voter. To study the party supply side we will use the data of the Comparative Agenda Project and of the Manifesto Project WZB. Advanced statistical methodology will be used to analyse the distinguished research questions, such as Multidimensional Scaling, Latent Class Analysis, (Multi group) Structural Equation Modelling and Multinomial Logistic regression. Key References Castel, R. (2003). From manual workers to wage laborers: Transformation of the social question. London: Transaction Publishers. Ferrera, M. (2005). The boundaries of welfare: European integration and the new spatial politics of social solidarity. Oxford: Oxford University Press Kriesi, H., Grande, E., Dolezal, M., Helbing, M., Höglinger, D., Hutter, S., Wüest, B. (2012), Political Conflict in Western Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Rosanvallon, P. (2000). The new social question: Rethinking the welfare state. New Jersey: Princeton University Press."