RUDE: The Rural-Urban Divide in Europe
Lead Research Organisation:
Goethe University Frankfurt
Department Name: UNLISTED
Abstract
Rising populism and polarization, coupled with declining democratic legitimacy, all point toward a
crisis in European democracies. This crisis has a regional dimension: a political and perhaps cultural
divide between rural and urban areas. The project examines whether and how urban-rural
residency is related to divides in legitimacy beliefs, social identities, perceptions of injustice and
threat, political and social attitudes and political behavior of European citizens. It explores
“Democratic governance in a turbulent age” from different thematic angles. First, it deals with
shifting identities and their consequences for democratic governance and political representation
(theme 4). Stable cleavages only emerge when struggles for identity are accompanied by
perceptions of social inequality and unfair resource distribution (theme 1). Second, it examines the
role played by globalization: increasing rural-urban economic divides create social status threats
which exacerbate rural-urban political divides (theme 2). The project will combine a broad
comparative study of all European countries with an in-depth analysis of five established European
democracies. The project will result in the provision of significant new evidence on rural-urban
disparities in European politics, which will allow us to examine the consequences of – and cures for
– the current crisis of democracy, thereby engaging both academic and policymaking audiences.
The coordination of the project, setting of the agenda, and the timely delivery of work packages
will be the responsibility of the Frankfurt team. In particular, the project will be coordinated by
holding five internal workshops and using a shared cloud server.
crisis in European democracies. This crisis has a regional dimension: a political and perhaps cultural
divide between rural and urban areas. The project examines whether and how urban-rural
residency is related to divides in legitimacy beliefs, social identities, perceptions of injustice and
threat, political and social attitudes and political behavior of European citizens. It explores
“Democratic governance in a turbulent age” from different thematic angles. First, it deals with
shifting identities and their consequences for democratic governance and political representation
(theme 4). Stable cleavages only emerge when struggles for identity are accompanied by
perceptions of social inequality and unfair resource distribution (theme 1). Second, it examines the
role played by globalization: increasing rural-urban economic divides create social status threats
which exacerbate rural-urban political divides (theme 2). The project will combine a broad
comparative study of all European countries with an in-depth analysis of five established European
democracies. The project will result in the provision of significant new evidence on rural-urban
disparities in European politics, which will allow us to examine the consequences of – and cures for
– the current crisis of democracy, thereby engaging both academic and policymaking audiences.
The coordination of the project, setting of the agenda, and the timely delivery of work packages
will be the responsibility of the Frankfurt team. In particular, the project will be coordinated by
holding five internal workshops and using a shared cloud server.
