The Nature of Societal Conflict in Europe; an Archetypal Analysis of the Postmodern Cosmopolitan, Rural Traditionalist and Urban Precariat

We analyse the nature of contemporary societal conflict in Europe, conceptualizing conflict in terms of oppositional identities, represented by the archetypal extreme corner positions between which contestation takes place. By analysing key characteristics of 28,565 Europeans from seven countries in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of common market studies 2022-11, Vol.60 (6), p.1701-1722
Main Authors: Beugelsdijk, Sjoerd, Herk, Hester, Maseland, Robbert
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
archetype
Attitudes
Concept formation
Conflict
cultural change
Demography
Europe
identities
Identity
Nationalism
Postmodernism
societal conflict
Time periods
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Summary:We analyse the nature of contemporary societal conflict in Europe, conceptualizing conflict in terms of oppositional identities, represented by the archetypal extreme corner positions between which contestation takes place. By analysing key characteristics of 28,565 Europeans from seven countries in four distinct time periods, we find three archetypal corner positions. Each archetype represents an ideal‐typical configuration of values, attitudes and socio‐demographic characteristics which people identify more or less with. The first archetype (which we label Postmodern Cosmopolitan) represents an urban, higher‐educated person with cosmopolitan values and attitudes. The other two archetypes (Rural traditionalist and Urban Precariat) present images of Europe that are more nationalistic and differ in their political‐economic ideological position. Western and Eastern European countries differ markedly in the distribution of these archetypes over time. The novelty of this paper is our conceptualization and operationalization of the changing nature of societal conflict as changes in oppositional identities.
ISSN:0021-9886
1468-5965
DOI:10.1111/jcms.13342