📢 Blog Post #15, by VUB Team, is now live!
What looks like individual hostility often reflects deeper dynamics of frustration, perceived injustice, and emotional displacement.
🔗 www.pledgeproject.eu/pledge-blog-...
#PLEDGEProject #Democracy #sexism #harassment
PLEDGE, PROTEMO, MORES, and CIDAPE invite you to join our Online Colloquium on Emotions and Democracy 🎯 on 27 March.
This session explores how “cringe” communication 😬 is evolving into a powerful political tool.
Join here 🔗: www.pledgeproject.eu/join-our-onl...
#PLEDGEProject #EU #cringe
🎥 In this short video, Chris reflects on why understanding citizens’ emotions is essential for rebuilding trust and strengthening democratic governance.
#PLEDGEProject #Democracy #GrievancePolitics #CivicEngagement 🤝
📢 New PLEDGE blog post #13 by IPU Berlin team.
How can policymakers listen to emotions without reinforcing polarization?
Read the latest insights from the PLEDGE research.
🔗 www.pledgeproject.eu/pledge-blog-...
#PLEDGEProject #Democracy #Polarization
Immersion is not neutral.
#PLEDGE Blogpost #12 shows how VR becomes a medium for grievance politics, turning victimhood, heroism & ressentiment into lived experience.
Storyliving → affective bonding → political meaning
🔗 bitly.cx/LkY81
#VirtualReality #GrievancePolitics #PoliticalEmotions #EU
Short videos are reshaping political exposure in Europe.
Our new study on the #EuropeanElections2024 shows how algorithmic feeds structure visibility, grievances & political content across ideological pathways.
Algorithms → emotional content → democratic resilience
🔗 bitly.cx/0mLs
#PLEDGE #eu
Ressentiment as a political resource.
Our new article shows how Erdoğan reframes collective victimhood into moral triumph — turning shared emotions into durable political loyalty.
Victimhood → affective bonding → authoritarian resilience ❌
🔗 bitly.cx/6QJK
#PLEDGE #GrievancePolitics #Populism
Grievance can become a pathway to radicalisation.
#PLEDGE Blogpost #5 explores how humiliation, exclusion & status loss shape the emotional tipping points towards democratic disavowal — or belonging.
🔗 bitly.cx/o85Qe
#GrievancePolitics #Democracy #EU
Emotions are not side effects of politics. They shape it.
In #4 of the Grievance Politics Briefings🤝, we explore how humiliation, frustration and powerless anger redefine how citizens relate to democracy.
- Read more: www.pledgeproject.eu/4-emotion-se...
#PLEDGE #GrievancePolitics #Democracy
📘 PLEDGE Policy Brief #2 is out
Emotions are shaping democratic trust in times of polycrisis.
🔗 Read the Policy Brief:
mailchi.mp/d89cbd495989...
#PLEDGEproject #PolicyBrief #DemocraticGovernance #Research #GrievancePolitics #EU
Another morning, another article mentioning the "hard right"...
This may seem trivial but the use of terms that euphemise far-right politics and deflect from the threat they pose matters a lot
See @gsamaras.bsky.social 's brilliant article on the "hard right"
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
📣Online book launch 📣
Join us on Zoom (Feb 10, 7pm GMT / 11am PST) for the launch of The Far Right and the Media: International Trends and Perspectives, exploring how media systems shape the visibility and normalization of far-right ideas in today’s digital world.
reacpol.net/farright-med...
If you want some background on Matthew Goodwin, I wrote a couple of years ago about his kind of grifter, their reactionary bad faith politics and how they are in service of the powerful and enabled by the mainstream elite
jacobin.com/2023/05/righ...
In our latest blogpost #11 by Prof. Tereza Capelos, we argue that grievance politics grows when policies ignore how people feel.
⚖️Emotionally attuned co-production is essential for rebuilding trust and democratic resilience in times of crisis.
🧠Read more: www.pledgeproject.eu/pledge-blog-...
❇️ FirstView – 🔍 Research
@gsamaras.bsky.social presents the first systematic study of how 7 major English-language outlets used the term “Hard-Right”.
👉 buff.ly/WdoSNLx
@theguardian.com The BBC @politico.com @newstatesman1913.bsky.social @economist.com @reuters.com @financialtimes.com
- Myriad tractors 🚜 running on burning emotion, not fuel 🔥.
This isn’t just about agriculture or policy tweaks. It’s a masterclass in how grievance, identity, and storytelling turn protest into political pressure.
🔍In this expert interview, Professor Tereza Capelos unpacks how grievance functions as an emotional anchor shaping political behaviour.
▶️ Watch the full interview on our YouTube channel or via the link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO5p...
#GrievancePolitics #Populism #Democracy #PoliticalPsychology
Politics stops solving problems. Then it starts blaming people.
In our new clip, Dr. Gabriella Szabo unpacks how blame and emotional manipulation fuel grievance politics and polarisation.
👉 Watch and reflect: www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOOK...
Come work with us!
New PhD / Postdoc positions here at the Digital Democracy Centre! 👇
Hello again, algorithm. Just published in JDSR: My new article explores how social media shape far-right and liberal fantasies of security, belonging, and “love” through affect and algorithmic power. Thanks to WASP-HS & @pledge-project.bsky.social for their support.
publicera.kb.se/jdsr/article...
In Part II 🔥 of PLEDGE's Blog Post: Youth Radicalism in Europe, Ayhan Kaya unpacks how nativist and Muslim-origin youth are co-radicalised by shared experiences of precarity, marginalisation, and political neglect.
Read more: www.pledgeproject.eu/pledge-blog-...
#Democracy #grievances #extremism
📣New interview📣
'Terms like “detransitioner,” like “transitioner,” reduce people to the act of transitioning and frame transitioning as an extremist act or impulsive decision'
@katfuller.bsky.social discusses transphobic moral panics on the far right.
reacpol.net/moral-panic-...
PLEDGE invites everyone to the book launch of "The Birth and Death of Liberal Democracy in Hungary" on 8 December 2025. The event will explore how polarisation has reshaped democratic life, with insights from Emilia Palonen and international experts.
Participation is available online. 📚✨
Our workshop “From Understanding to Action: Co-Creating Democratic Innovation with CSOs” was a great success!!! 🎉
🙌A big thank you to all civil society practitioners, partners and contributors who shared their insights and experiences.
#PLEDGE #GrievancePolitics #Innovation
📢 Are you a CSO or NGO representative interested in strengthening democratic innovation?
Secure your position by registering, via www.pledgeproject.eu/pledge-invit...
#PLEDGEproject #Workshop #Democracy #EU
Well that's a quick way to become an example in lectures on the online far-right 😅
Across Europe, young people are searching for belonging in divided societies. Some turn to nationalism, others to religion — but both paths reveal a deeper crisis of meaning and connection.
Read PLEDGE Blog post #9
👉 www.pledgeproject.eu/pledge-blog-...
#PLEDGE #democracy #radicalisation
🌀 PLEDGE Blog #8
When crisis hits, emotions become the jet fuel of our information ecosystem.
📖 Read more: www.pledgeproject.eu/fear-anger-a...
#PLEDGE #Disinformation #ClimateCrisis #MediaLiteracy #EmotionsInPolitics
📣 Join us for two keynote lectures as part of the symposium
“Historicizing Populism: From the Classics to the Contemporary”,
hosted by the University of Helsinki within the PLEDGE Project.
💻 Watch live: video.helsinki.fi/unitube/live...
#PLEDGE #Populism #Democracy #PoliticalScience #PublicTalks
🌍 When was the last time you were trained by three top-notch EU projects simultaneously?
👉 Learn more: www.pledgeproject.eu/joint-worksh...
🎟 Register now via the link or QR code and be part of this collaborative discussion!
#PolicyMaking #ResearchToPolicy #PLEDGE #PolicyInnovation
