Social Networks and the Education Cleavage

• In Event: Networks, Elites and Social Norms

Abstract

Education is widely recognized as structuring emerging political divides between the new left and the far right (Stubager 2009; Häusermann and Kriesi 2015; Abou-Chadi and Hix 2021; Marks et al. 2022). However, there is ongoing uncertainty about the mechanism through which the education cleavage operates, particularly in the absence of mobilizing organizations. Our original survey in Germany, Switzerland, and the UK explores the hypothesis that patterns of social segregation by education create social networks which foster common identities, political attitudes, and voting behavior-- consolidating key aspects of an emerging cleavage.

Authors

• David Attewell, University of Zurich

• Delia Zollinger, University of Zurich