The Emotional Underpinnings of Protection: Evidence from Multi-Country Focus Groups

In an age of increasing anxiety and insecurity generated by the complexity of globalisation, little is known about what ‘protection’ means to individuals as they navigate the political world. This paper investigates the meaning and experience of protection among groups of citizens and non-citizens, as well as their reactions and understanding of ‘protective’ policies. The focus is on emotions, as the affective dynamics linked to experiences of insecurity and demands for protection are understudied. Specifically, the paper explores four themes: (a) the emotional needs that relate to protection; (b) how these needs are met or left unsatisfied; (c) how individuals make sense of policies that politicians articulate as providing protection, safety and security (i.e, ‘protective’ policies); d) how the emotional reactions towards protective policies relate to support for democratic forms of political engagement, political trust, institutional confidence, and preferences for specific solutions to contemporary policy challenges. This is done by conducting a series of focus groups in six countries (UK, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Denmark and Israel) on a range of policy themes (pandemic, migration, climate, welfare). The paper provides a theoretical and empirical contribution to the political psychology literature. First, it develops a novel conceptual framework that captures the nuances of protection in the modern age of insecurity, advancing extant theorisations. Second, it provides a depth of comparative qualitative data that enables us to study differences in contexts and policy areas empirically.