About this Research Topic
Euroscepticism is on the rise across Europe. EU support has declined in many countries and among particular population subgroups, and anti-EU parties are electorally stronger than ever. As a result, the process of European integration is experiencing profound challenges. To date, research has mainly sought to explain EU support and support for Eurosceptic parties in terms of individual-level characteristics, including income, occupation, and education. Despite the existence of excellent (mainly) country level context work, the individual level explanations are the dominating paradigm. An important strand of work within this body of research examines Euroscepticism among winners and losers of globalization. In recent years, however, scholars have become more interested in studying Euroscepticism from a spatial perspective, with particular attention paid to economic geography and the effects of trade liberalization and industrial decline. To advance this line of research, we invite paper submissions to a special series at Political Participation.
This special series will publish work that examines the relationship between EU support and subnational geographic context. We welcome submissions that address this question from the perspective of higher- and lower-level geographic contexts, leveraging regional, municipal, and district or ward variation. We welcome papers that study EU support as a function of political geography. This includes work that examines subnational variations in inter-party competition and party organization and mobilization as well as public goods provision. We also encourage submissions of papers that study EU support as a function of social and economic geography related to immigration, demography, social mobilization, labor market structure, employment patterns, trade exposure, and economic performance. We welcome studies that draw on cross-national data as well as data from individual countries. We are particularly interested in receiving papers that examine the geography of EU support from a longitudinal perspective. Finally, we welcome submissions that center on regression analyses, experimental methods, and case-study analysis.
Keywords: European Union, euroscepticism
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
