Solidarity in times of crisis

The recent economic crisis has severely affected citizens all over Europe, leading to high levels of insecurity and declining trust in public institutions. The populist radical-right successfully capitalises on peoples anxieties by blaming scapegoats for societys problems and offering simple political answers. As recent European and national elections showed they are indeed becoming even more attractive to a significant part of the electorate. However, reactions to the consequences of the crisis and to experiences of deprivation do not necessarily lead to authoritarianism, nationalism and xenophobia. Many people voice democratic and universal-solidary protest against the worsening of living and working conditions and join progressive social movements, particularly in southern Europe. These opposing responses reflect a growing tension in Europe between nationalist and exclusivist concepts of solidarity, on the one hand, and inclusive and transnational ones on the other. The proposed research project SOCRIS aims at investigating the impact of the intensified socio- economic change following the recent economic crisis on political orientations. It will build on the findings of a former European study conducted between 2001 and 2004 (SIREN, 5th framework programme) which showed how the transformation of working life added to the appeal of the extreme right in eight countries. As a follow-up study, SOCRIS will investigate the current situation and assess the impact of the crisis. It will go beyond the SIREN study as it will not only focus on peoples affinity to right-wing populism and extremism but put more emphasis on democratic and inclusive political orientations and on the ongoing symbolic struggles over different forms of solidarity. The project will focus on Austria and Hungary which were part of the original SIREN sample and provide the unique opportunity to investigate two countries both having a strong populist radical right, yet affected by the crisis very differently. Using methodological triangulation of quantitative and qualitative data, SOCRIS will explore how individuals perceive and react to the consequences of the crisis. It will investigate how recent developments have fuelled attraction to the populist radical right and to right-wing extremism and where and why, on the other hand, democratic and inclusive orientations have been strengthened. The comparison over time and between the two countries will provide a deeper understanding of the complex processes of political subjectivity.

Solidarity in times of crisis - Socio-economic change and political orientations in Austria and Hungary In the past decades, several crises strongly affected the EU thereby raising questions about social cohesion and solidarity among and within the member states. Solidarity is often juxtaposed with non-solidary behaviour and perceived as inclusive and tolerant. However, because also populist and extremist right-wing parties make increasingly use of the term, the meaning of solidarity is being reshaped. The research project SOCRIS examined the impact of recent crisis phenomena on political orientations. It focused on Austria and Hungary, because they provide the unique opportunity to investigate two countries having a strong populist radical right, while having been affected by recent crises differently. Using methodological triangulation of quantitative and qualitative data, SOCRIS explored how individuals perceived and reacted to the consequences of the crises, focussing on concepts of solidarity. The SOCRIS project discovered a wide variety of different ideas of solidarity. It revealed a broad spectrum of different concepts and thus questioned common binary understandings juxtaposing solidary and non-solidary behaviour thus representing only the poles of the spectrum. At the same time, the findings cast doubt on the image of an increasingly polarized society popularized by the media. In the very heterogenous centre of the spectrum, a wide range of diverse positions unfold where inclusive and excluding aspects are combined in different ways. For instance, people expressing solidarity with refugees and even actively support them do not necessarily care about other disadvantaged groups - as a binary concept would suggest. This also means that boundaries between groups are not as clear-cut and, thus, differences between groups holding distinct views might be less insurmountable than they might seem. Furthermore, the SOCRIS project revealed that the Austrian population shows great support for the institutionalized solidarity of the welfare state. A vast majority clearly rejects cuts in welfare state spending for disadvantaged groups. The comparison between Austria and Hungary showed a higher degree of nationalism in solidarity concepts in Hungary and revealed that a majority of the Austrian respondents share some form of inclusive solidarity whereas this is only the case with a minority in Hungary. Furthermore, the social profiles of the groups holding similar views of solidarity in Austria on the one hand and in Hungary on the other are quite different. This cautions us against prioritising socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics in the explanation of solidarity. Due to different historical and institutional conditions, different societal groups can be won over to particular views which means that perceptions and frames and thus public discourses play a central role in the formation of solidarity concepts.