Beyond Paradigm War: Exploring the Discursive Space of Contemporary Political Culture Research

This issue brings together theoretical and empirical contributions that reflect the methodological, thematic, and conceptual diversity of contemporary political culture research. Moving beyond older divisions between quantitative and qualitative approaches, the issue demonstrates how political culture can be studied through multiple lenses, including political psychology, discourse theory, computational social science, feminist theory, regionalism, youth studies, trust research, memory studies, and digital activism. The contributions address key challenges of contemporary politics, such as democratic backsliding, populism, political trust, national identity, gender equality, migration narratives, digital communication, artificial intelligence, political participation, and regional political cultures. Collectively, the articles highlight the continuing relevance of political culture as an analytical framework for understanding how values, narratives, institutions, identities, and social practices shape political life. This thematic issue also reveals emerging convergences in the field, particularly the growing role of digital and computational methods, the influence of cultural and experimental political psychology, and renewed attention to democratic societies and their internal tensions. Overall, the issue seeks to stimulate further reflection on the evolving boundaries, methods, and future directions of political culture research.