Approach

MAGnituDe examines the consequences of mass displacement caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for European democracy. The project claims that the military conflicts of such magnitude as Russia’s war against Ukraine intensify affective polarisation and increase the risk of  social antagonisms, undermining inclusiveness, and challenging the ideals of justice and democracy. MAGnituDe approaches affective polarisation through the feminist lens of affective geopolitics. This perspective highlights how geopolitical narratives and tensions are felt and reproduced in everyday life—through emotions, bodies, homes, and personal relationships.

 

MAGnituDe explores and tackles the risk of affective polarisation in everyday encounters of forcibly displaced people from Ukraine on three levels:

• Migrant–State (Affective Citizenship): Citizenship is seen as lived practices and emotional relations with the state, extending beyond legal status. We study FDPs’ encounters with frontline officials such as social workers, migration officers, or border guards.
• Migrant–Migrant (Conviviality): Conviviality captures how different groups of migrants live together in the shadow/at the background of geopolitical tensions. We analyse encounters between FDPs, Syrian refugees who arrived since 2015, and migrants from Belarus and Russia.
• Migrant–Host Society (Belonging): Belonging reflects feelings of attachment and ‘being at home.’ We examine how memory, identity, and everyday encounters shape both majority politics of belonging and practices among marginalised groups, in particular, Russian-speaking diasporas across Europe.