Social Divides in the Age of Globalization

• In Event: Divisions and Cleavages in Contemporary Europe

Abstract

Over the last decades a new integration-demarcation cleavage has emerged in Europe that opposes political parties that are in favor or against globalization. While we know a lot about the socio-structural basis and the political organization of this cleavage we do not know to what extent these political divides have led to social divides. The aim of this paper is therefore to investigate how losers and winners of globalization oppose each other. On the basis of representative online experiments in Germany and Austria we study attitudes and behavior towards people with different nationalities, education and party preferences, which correspond to the cultural, socio-structural and organizational elements of the new cleavage. More particularly we like to know to what extent people are willing to interact with each other in daily life and how much they trust each other. Our main results show that people who identify with different parties (especially if they belong to the different sides of the cleavage) oppose each other much more than people with different nationalities. There is however no divide between low- and high-skilled persons. Finally, it appears that the social divides are asymmetrical: winners of globalization resent the losers more than vice versa.

Authors

• Marc Helbling, University of Bamberg

• Sebastian Jungkunz, University of Bamberg