Towards affective depolarisation?

• Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
• EGPP: European Governance and Politics Programme

The workshop aims to facilitate collaboration between American and European scholars, to establish a shared research agenda to tackle polarisation.

Affective polarisation – broadly defined as the mutual antipathy between different political camps in society – has become an increasingly troublesome phenomenon in contemporary politics. In light of the crucial elections taking place both in Europe and the United States in 2024, this workshop brings together a select group of scholars from both sides of the Atlantic to present and discuss their latest research on affective polarisation.

Particularly, the focus is set on the adverse outcomes that affective polarisation might have for democracy and society, and the potential ways to reduce hostility toward political opponents.

The primary objective of the workshop is to facilitate collaboration and knowledge exchange between American and European scholars, in order to establish a shared research agenda aimed at better understanding and tackling the problems that emanate from this pernicious type of polarisation.

The workshop is supported in part through a grant from the Open Society Foundations.