A New Social Conflict on Globalisation-Related Issues in Germany? A Longitudinal Perspective
- authored by
- Céline Teney, Li Kathrin Rupieper
- Abstract
We draw on cleavage theory to assess the emergence of a social conflict concerning globalisation-related issues among the German population between 1989 and 2019. We argue that issue salience and opinion polarisation are key conditions for a successful and sustainable political mobilisation of citizens and thus for the emergence of a social conflict. In line with globalisation cleavage theory, we hypothesised that issue salience as well as overall and between-group opinion polarisation on globalisation-related issues have increased over time. Our study considers four globalisation-related issues: immigration, the European Union (EU), economic liberalism, and the environment. While the salience of the EU and economic liberalism issues remained low during the observed period, we found a recent increase in salience for the issues of immigration (since 2015) and the environment (since 2018). Furthermore, our results point to rather stable attitudes on globalisation-related issues among the German population: We did not find any consistent evidence of an increase in overall or between-group polarisation over time. In conclusion, the idea of an emerging conflict around globalisation-related issues among the German population finds very little empirical support.
- Organisation(s)
-
Institute of Economic Policy
- External Organisation(s)
-
Freie Universität Berlin (FU Berlin)
- Type
- Article
- Journal
- Kolner Zeitschrift fur Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie
- Volume
- 75
- Pages
- 205-234
- No. of pages
- 30
- ISSN
- 0023-2653
- Publication date
- 12.2023
- Publication status
- Published
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science
- Sustainable Development Goals
- SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
- Electronic version(s)
-
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11577-023-00884-5 (Access:
Open)