The Difference Policy Makes: A Policy Feedback Study of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development

As recently illustrated by the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the EU, current trends of political polarization is partly driven by divides over the EU and EU-associated liberal values - openness, diversity and economic integration.

While this backlash is partly explained by structural economic changes caused in part by European integration, the EU has also played a significant role in mediating, and mitigating, adverse effects on economically vulnerable groups through shared structural and investment funds.

Among the groups that have turned increasingly hostile are rural populations that collectively have benefitted significantly from EU funding.Structural factors notwithstanding, this project asks whether and how the EU´s policy instruments have affected political sentiments - specifically, attitudes toward the EU and values associated with it - among rural populations.

The project will examine local feedback effects of the EU´s policies of rural development in three countries with different political histories and welfare regimes: Italy, Sweden and the UK.

Combining statistical spatial analysis with qualitative methods, the project aims to understand effects of EU policy-making across different political, cultural and economic contexts.The project will generate knowledge much needed to manage new challenges for social, economic and political inclusion.