Political behaviour, subjectivity and contention

Keywords: political participation, electoral behaviour, party politics, political attitudes, civil society, social movements, social networks,political communication, memory politics, (post)Soviet

The main focus of our research group is political behaviour, polit­ical attitudes and subjectivity with specific interest in communist and post-communist legacies.

 

Research group activities

Under the communist regime, societies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) underwent a drastic social experiment. Understanding effects and measuring longstanding impact of this experiment on current CEE societies are among the main goals of our group. Building on new theoret­ical approaches (e.g. relational sociology) and advanced methods of social science (quantitative as well as qualitative), and in-depth knowledge of the Lithuanian society, we seek to reveal peculiari­ties of (post)communist societies.

The group has been working together for more than ten years. It has successfully implemented numerous research projects on a number of salient topics – development of the Lithuanian civil society and national party system, cultural opposition in Soviet Lithuania and roots of civic movement ‘Sąjūdis’ in late 1980’s, among others. The research group is responsible for the Lithua­nian National Election Study. We collaborate with researchers of national elections studies in other countries under the frame­work of the COST action “True European Voter” and inside the network of Comparative Studies of Electoral Systems (CSES). The research group has also developed a Voter Advice Applica­tion (VAA) for Lithuania, and it collaborates with VAA develop­ers across Europe (EUvox). Besides socio-political analysis of the current Lithuanian society, we work on the historico-anthropo­logical research on the Lithuanian everyday life, social network­ing and cultural resistance during the Soviet period, as well as memory of the Soviet in the present.

 

Proposal

 

We have expertise in analysing political behaviour using different inter-disciplinary methods (survey data, survey experiments, in-depth interviews, oral history, social network analysis). Our team is experienced in carrying out large scale public opinion surveys (Lithuanian post-election surveys, European Values Survey, Lithuanian Civic Empowerment Index, etc.), and qualitative studies of political attitudes. We seek partnership with similar groups in other countries, especially focusing on post-communist societies, to engage into comparative research of political behaviour, social movements and memory.

 

Meet our team

Prof. Dr. Ainė Ramonaitė - Political science

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rūta Žiliukaitė - Sociology

Jūratė Kavaliauskaitė - Political communication

Assoc. Prof. Dr. M. Jastramskis - Comparative politics, quantitative methods

Assist. Prof. Dr. Ieva Petronytė - Political sociology, Political psychology

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Inga Vinogradnaitė - Political science, qualitative methods

Assist. Prof. Dr. Jogilė Ulinskaitė - Political sociology

Paulius Skirkevičius - History, comparative politics

Research outcomes

 

• 8 books and numerous articles in peer-review journals
• Lithuanian National Election Study 2012 and 2016
• Voting advice application (VAA) in Lithuania (www.manobalsas.lt) implemented parliamentary, presidential and EP elections since 2008

 

Prizes and Awards:

• Lithuanian Academy of Science Prize for Young Research­ers in 2006
• Lithuanian Political Science Association Award for the Best Political Science Publication of 2007
• Lithuanian Political Science Association Award for the Best Political Science Publication of 2010
• Lithuanian Political Science Association Award for the Best Political Science Publication of 2012
• Vilnius University Award for the Best 2014 Publication in Social Sciences and Humanities

 

 

Resources

• Database of in-depth interviews collected since 2003 with ordinary citizens of Lithuania and elites
• Oral history archive on Soviet and post-Soviet transforma­tions http://www.visuomenesovietmeciu.tspmi.vu.lt/
• An archive of public opinion survey data and political elites surveys (since 2005)

 

Contacts

 

Prof. dr. Ainė Ramonaitė

Institute of International Relations and Political Science

Phone: +370 652 00 524

E-mail:   

More about the institute: http://www.tspmi.vu.lt/en/

 

Department for Research and Innovation

Phone: +370 5 268 7006

E-mail:

More information: https://www.vu.lt/verslui/

 

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