Zumbrunn, Alina (2024). Place of Living as a Social Identity: The Rural-Suburban-Urban Divide in Political Support. (Thesis). Universität Bern, Bern
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Abstract
The goal of this thesis is to investigate the Swiss and European rural-suburban-urban divide in political support through the lens of social identity theory. While earlier research on the places of living is mainly focused on its relationship with specific political events and policy attitudes, I move beyond the investigation of these concrete issues and analyse the rural-suburban-urban divide with regard to political support in general. I link the two concepts relying on social identity theory, thus bringing in a new theoretical viewpoint on place of living. In my dissertation, I show that place of living indeed forms a social identity and that elements of this social identity contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the rural-suburban-urban divide in political support. My three articles hence contribute to current literature in a number of ways: First, I present the first comprehensive theoretical model interpreting place of living in light of social identity theory. Second, relying on a novel data set, I am able to implement this model empirically using original items that operationalize place of living as a social identity. Third, I am able to investigate several measures of political support, thus taking into account its conceptual variety. Lastly, I specifically focus on the suburbs—a very relevant but often forgotten third group when discussing place of living. My analyses reveal that there exists a small rural-suburban-urban divide in political support, which is shaped by place-based identity and can to a large portion be explained through place-based resentment. In sum, this dissertation enhances our understanding of place of living by discussing it as a social identity, while simultaneously enriching our knowledge about the roots of political support.
| Item Type: | Thesis |
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| Dissertation Type: | Cumulative |
| Date of Defense: | 23 May 2024 |
| Subjects: | 300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 320 Political science |
| Institute / Center: | 03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Institute of Political Science |
| Depositing User: | Hammer Igor |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Feb 2025 07:57 |
| Last Modified: | 12 Feb 2025 06:47 |
| URI: | https://boristheses.unibe.ch/id/eprint/5814 |
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