This work package examines identity leadership through a content analysis of election campaign speeches by leading politicians in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. It focuses on the globalization-related social categories used by political elites and identifies the language through which these categories are constructed and communicated.

The findings from this analysis will help narrow down the identity categories most relevant across the four countries and provide an empirical foundation for the survey instruments used in the later stages of the project.

This work package conducts a pilot survey in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom to identify the identity categories that are psychologically most salient to citizens and to develop and test key measurement instruments.

The pilot combines open-ended and structured survey questions in order to assess how people describe relevant in-groups and out-groups, how strongly they identify with them, and how these identities can best be measured in the main surveys. It also serves to pretest the experimental materials used in the comparative survey.

This work package focuses on Germany and uses a three-wave panel survey to examine the stability of globalization-related identities over time. It asks whether such identities become enduring parts of citizens’ self-concepts and how changes in identity relate to changes in policy attitudes and party preferences.

The German case is especially informative because it allows the project to study identity formation and political realignment in a context where the globalization cleavage is still evolving. The panel design also creates opportunities for stronger causal analysis of the relationship between identity and political behaviour.

This work package consists of comparative cross-sectional surveys in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. It investigates both the formation and the activation of globalization-related identities in a cross-national perspective.

Using embedded survey experiments, the project examines how elite messages can strengthen identification with particular groups and how such identity appeals shape evaluations of political actors and vote intentions. This makes it possible to compare how identity leadership operates across different national contexts.