Principal Researchers: Professor Sokratis Koniordos & Professor Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos
Duration: September 2021 - August 2022
Overview
In contrast to culture wars in other societies, associated with social movements and the formation of identities from within the social sphere, in contemporary Greece such conflicts have started after initiatives taken by state authorities. Moreover, participants in Greek culture wars have been not so much identity groups, but political and administrative institutions, including ministries, the courts and official church authorities. In addition, in Greece culture wars have been interwoven with on-going, front stage political party conflict rather than long-term, simmering social tensions.
In the context of such paradoxes, four different wars – considered as case studies – have broken out, namely conflicts
(a) over the Greek national identity in opposition to the European one;
(b) over the challenges posed to that identity by migrants and refugees;
(c) over traditional family vs. modern forms of gender identity and partnership;
(d) and over personal freedom from compulsory vaccination (including Covid-19 vaccines).
The proposed research will map and explore multiple aspects of these four culture wars through the study of opinion surveys, official documents (parliamentary minutes, court decisions) and as well as the conduct of 4 focus groups.
Project Outputs
- The Policy Brief is available here.
- Read the Research Paper of the project, which was published as part of the GreeSE working paper series, GreeSE Paper No.182
Events
- The preliminary findings of the Research Project were presented on 22 March 2023 at a joint Research Seminar along with Dr Roula Nezi's Project, ‘Cultural Divides and Affective Polarisation,.
Read more here.
Listen to the podcast here.
Research Team
Principal Researcher: Sokratis Koniordos, Professor of Sociology, Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of the Peloponnese
Principal Researcher: Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos, Professor of Political Science, Department of Political Science & Public Administration, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens