The new EDGE project – Enhancing Democratic Support under Conditions of Geographic and Intersectional Inequalities in Europe – has been accepted by the European Commission for funding under Horizon Europe.
With Alexia Katsanidou from GESIS and Sofia Vassilopoulou from King's College London in the coordinating role, the EDGE project investigates how economic inequalities influence democratic support in Europe. A particular focus is placed on intersectional dimensions of political resentment.
EDGE addresses a core challenge for the future of democracy in Europe: how economic inequalities—both objective and perceived—shape citizens’ support for democratic principles and institutions. The project has two central aims:
- to advance knowledge on the mechanisms through which inequalities can undermine—or, under certain conditions, reinforce—democratic support; and
- to causally assess policy interventions that can strengthen democracy across diverse social and territorial contexts.
At the heart of EDGE is an innovative interdisciplinary framework that conceptualises resentment as the key link between objective and subjective inequalities. The project examines how resentment towards political elites can fuel support for strong executives at the expense of checks and balances, while resentment towards outgroups can erode commitments to equality and pluralism. By integrating geographic and intersectional perspectives, EDGE traces the pathways through which lived experiences, identities, territorial contexts, and media and digital networks interact to shape democratic attitudes.
Methodologically, the project combines objective indicators and subjective perceptions, linking existing data (eg. satelite data) with new surveys, experiments, media analyses, and town halls. Its policy ambition is equally central: to design, test, and disseminate actionable interventions tailored to structural and identity-based inequalities, supporting policymakers and civil society actors across Europe.
EDGE brings together an outstanding consortium of partners:
- GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften
- King's College London
- Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH)
- Department of Political Science, Paris Lodron University Salzburg
- University of Łódź
- Universiteit van Amsterdam
- Copenhagen Business School
- Aalborg Universitet
- Stimmuli For Social Change
- European Movement International