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Paper short abstract

Based on ethnography from the Austria-Slovenia-Hungary border region, this paper examines homogenizing tendencies in socially diverse rural contexts. It analyzes the interplay of actors with nativist and cosmopolitan positions, whose strategies punctually converge, shaping regional development.

Paper long abstract

The paper discusses the case of Jennersdorf, a locality in southeastern Austria bordering Hungary and Slovenia, focusing on tensions between local populist movements and the cosmopolitan, cross-border character of the region. The rural area lies away from main connectivity axes, suffering from population decline and outmigration. Populist parties dominate at local level, promoting an anti-EU discourse with nativist elements, reflecting the “left-behind” discontent described in literature on so called “left behind places” in Europe (Rodríguez-Pose 2018, MacKinnon et al. 2022). At the same time, strong cross-border ties exist, and political actors call for the region to be recognized as a cross-border, cosmopolitan Central European space.

Based on ethnographic material collected as part of the EU-Horizon project EXIT, the paper examines the tension between homogenizing tendencies and existing socially diverse contexts in rural places, a dynamic often overlooked in debates on rural areas described as “left behind”. It analyzes the surprising interplay between actors holding seemingly opposing positions, particularly regarding the tension between nativism and cosmopolitanism, whose local strategies may nonetheless converge. These actors include local populist politicians, civil society organizations, and neighborhood initiatives, often led and carried out by women. The paper further explores how nativist claims in this interplay are simultaneously contested and implicitly normalized, shaping the region’s development in contradictory ways.