Kampen kring tolkningar: Splittring bortom attityder

Political polarization is commonly seen as one of the most pressing societal challenges of our time—but what if we’ve been missing its deepest fault line? This project offers a new theoretical perspective: polarization is not only about what people believe, but how they interpret the world. Most research tracks attitudes, assuming that political actors—elites and citizens alike—share the same conceptual terrain. But what if they don’t? This project introduces the concept of interpretative divergence: the extent to which different groups attach distinct meanings to the same political concepts. These fractures in meaning may underlie growing political conflict—even when attitudes remain stable. Using large-scale textual data from parliamentary debates and online forums, the project applies large language models to systematically measure how language reflects divergent interpretations across time and group boundaries. It asks: How deep do these disagreements run? How do they differ between elites and the public? And what drives their development? By reframing polarization as a cultural conflict over meaning—not just opinion—this project opens a new frontier in understanding how societies divide.