Research Projects

European fathers’ rights movements: gender (in)equality discourses and politics
Members: Katarzyna Wojnicka
Funding: Vetenskapsrådet
Period: 2019-2024

The goal of this project is to conduct research on European fathers’ rights movements (FRMs), a particular facet of men’s social movements and their discourses on gender (in)equality as well as practices aimed at combating gender-based discrimination. Fathers’ rights groups exist in all EU countries and are the most recognisable and “powerful” phenomena among European men’s movements. However, to date, there has been a lack of sufficient research on these phenomena. Therefore, the aim of this research project is to fill the knowledge gap on European fathers’ rights movements by conducting a scientific investigation from national, comparative and transnational perspectives. The project draws on preliminary qualitative research on Polish, Swedish and British fathers' rights movements and will be enriched by new data gathered through several social research methods including quantitative and qualitative studies. Firstly, quantitative research, including groups mapping and internet-based surveys, will be conducted in all EU/EFTA states. Secondly, in-depth interviews will be conducted
with movement activists from a) Germany and Spain and b) transnational organisations, and this data will then be analysed. The project will combine and contribute to the literatures of social movements, critical men and masculinities studies and European studies. Aside from its theoretical, methodological and empirical significance, the project has significant societal relevance.

Transnational bachelorhood. An ethnography of singledom among migrant men in the European Union
Members: Katarzyna Wojnicka, Ulf Melström, Andrea Priori, Andreas Henriksson
Funding: Vetenskapsrådet
Period: 2019-2022

Transnational bachelorhood denotes the situation of single men that have migrated and become part of transnational networks of family, kin and friends. Although often represented as ‘dangerous foreign masculinities’, and although characterising a significant portion of migrants, this bachelorhood is an under-researched aspect of transnational migration. The project will investigate four groups of transnational bachelors using a multi-sited ethnographic approach: Bangladeshis and Romanians in Italy and Syrians and Poles in Sweden. The aim is to investigate and analyse the situation of these men, particularly as it pertains to belonging, transnational families, mobility and masculinity. The project is informed by an intersectional approach to space and masculinity and by a transnational perspective on family relations.
The groups we investigate vary in regards to factors identified as significant for transnational bachelorhood; for example, they come from both within and without the European Union and have arrived in countries with different attitudes to migration. A comparison of these groups will allow for a more general and complex picture of transnational bachelorhood.
A minimum of six research articles are produced as part of the project. A reference group with both Italian and Swedish members has been formed and an application for ethical approval of the project will be sent before the end of 2018.

Political Party Member Responses to Organizational Change: Exit, Voice, and Loyalty
Members: Jonathan Polk and Ann-Kristin Kölln
Funding: Vetenskapsrådet
Period: 2016-2022

This project studies party members in Sweden and their role in the democratic state in the 21st century in a comparative perspective. Political parties have undergone substantial changes as membership organizations in the last several decades. Despite declining membership in many types of parties, party members continue to form an important yet generally understudied link in the democratic process in Sweden and elsewhere. The project extends and expands upon existing research by connecting newly collected and unique survey data on members of the Riksdag parties to the high quality data that already exists in Sweden for citizens, candidates for office, and the leadership of political parties. In doing so, it will answer important questions on the role of party members for multi-level governance in modern democracies. In particular, the findings will clarify all the steps and relevant groups in the democratic relationship between voters’ demands and policy output.
The party secretaries of the Swedish parliamentary parties have already agreed to participate in a survey of their party members that will reveal detailed information on contemporary party membership. Over a period of four years the project will cover four related work packages: the first studies the representative link of members; the second investigates the output of parties as a consequence of the opportunities and constraints that members provide; the third takes on a comparative perspective and explores possible explanations for similarities in the attitudes and preferences of members belonging to different parties; and the fourth work package pertains to the methodological challenges the study of party members entails. Our project brings contemporary party-level theory to bear on questions of individual membership. It makes important theoretical contributions by testing micro-foundations of political party behavior with much more detailed questions on membership than general public opinion surveys provide. The project also creates new data that allows for meaningful checks of existing sources of information, and puts the information that we will gather on contemporary Swedish party membership in a broader comparative context across industrialized democracies.