The Project

Conditions of acceptability in socio-spatial and digital environments

CuRe brings together five research teams from Austria, Croatia, Germany, Serbia and Sweden. Its goal is to better understand the shift in everyday life towards polarization and radicalization that has occurred in recent years, and the successes of right-wing movements and parties in Europe. Our research starts from the premise that cultures of rejection emerge as the result of crises in Europe’s democracies, as well as due to changes in national institutions and civil society. Since rejection is a threat to all forms of social cohesion and peaceful coexistence, the project seeks to study the conditions that have led to the rejection of, among else, immigration, political elites, media and cultural values such as gender equality and sexual liberty.

Cure vidEo Series

full video
Part complete: full video Part complete
Part 0: Introduction Part 0
Part 1: Racism is Not a Natural Reaction Part 1
Part 2: Transformations at Work and the Rejection of Others Part 2
Part 3: Sheltering from Society, Online and Offline Part 3
Part 4: Anti-Politics and Distrust in Democracy Part 4
Part 5: Conspirituality in the Pandemic Part 5
Part conclusion: Cultures of Rejection in Europe Today Part conclusion

reSearch environments

Workplaces in the retail and logistics sectors make up the primary research environment for our investigation of cultures of rejection. Workplaces constitute exceptionally lively sites for the expression of social attitudes and daily routines. CuRe focuses on workers in the retail and logistics sectors, given the profound transformations entailed by processes of digitalisation, precarization, and labour casualization in these sectors. We collaborate closely with representatives of trade unions and members of shop-floor organizations to identify relevant workplaces, gain access to sites, and recruit respondents.

Research in digital environments proceeds from the fact that ‘online’ and ‘offline’ aspects of the social world have become “intermeshed in interwoven human practices and social worlds” (Kozinets 2015: 69). The act of going online has been replaced by simply being online amidst an ecology of devices, software, and infrastructures. Everyday social interactions repeatedly cross the threshold between ‘online’ and ‘offline’ and blur traditional notions of space.

Experiences of transformation and crisis take place in everyday social relations outside the workplace and can affect patterns of consumption, mobility, care work, leisure activities, or voluntary work. Therefore, we also investigate the emergence, negotiation and contestation of cultures of rejection in larger socio-spatial environments.

featured content

27.6 - 29.6.2022

From the 27th to the 29th of June 2022, we are inviting scholars to Belgrade, to take stock of the social, political and cultural conditions of the present political conjuncture.

Conference Program

CuRe Research Team (2022)

Cultures of Rejection in the Covid-Crisis

PDF to download

CuRe Research Team (2021)

Cultures of rejection in the Covid-19 crisis
Ethnic and Racial Studies 44:5, 893-9

Link