A central part of my research focuses on the social and behavioral processes that drive the development of European and national identites.  In this line of research I have conducted several studies how referenda, neighborhoods and social sorting perceptions change European and national identities. In this context, I have further investigated the content of national and European identities.  

As one of my main findings from the study European and national identities is that people`s closeness to social groups and sorting perceptions thereof are strongly connected to European identities, another line of my research takes a closer look at how and why parties frame social groups.  I also investigate by what mechanisms social groups form norms, opinions and adopt political identities.

• Sczepanski, Ronja (2023): Who are the cosmopolitans? How perceived social sorting and social identities relate to European and national identities, Comparative Political Studies, https://doi.org/10.1177/00104140231194054

• Sczepanski, Ronja (2023): European by action? How voting shapes European and national idenitites, European Union Politics, https://doi.org/10.1177/14651165231175533, Pre-print available: osf.io/5gv69 

• Schraff, Dominik and Ronja Sczepanski (2021): United of divided in diversity? The heterogneous effects of ethnic diversity on European and national identities, European Union Politics, journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14651165211063770 

• Sczepanski, Ronja and Geoffrey Evans (2023): How do opinion-based and social group identities influence each other? Eveidence from a survey experiment on class and transnational political issues, Under review, https://osf.io/2m4tp

• Licht, Hauke and Ronja Sczepanski (2023): Who are they talking to? Automated measurement of group mentions in political text,  Under review, Pre-print avaiable: https://osf.io/ufb96/

• Sczepanski, Ronja (2023): The personification of politics - Parties strategic choice between group and issue appeals, Working paper, available upon request

Another line of my research focuses on differentiated integration in secondary law, meaning that a member state is exempted from certain parts of EU legislation. I have investigated if differentiated integration reduces member states likelihood to show non-compliance. Additionally,  I also looked at the interconnection between flexible implementation - granting member states more discretion how to implement a legal act - and differentiated integration. 

• Sczepanski, Ronja and Tanja Börzel (2022): Two Sides of the Same Coin? The Effect of Differentiation on Non-Compliance with EU law,  European Union Politics, https://doi.org/10.1177/14651165221130601 

• Pricen, Sebastiaan, Frank Schimmelfennig, Ronja Sczepanski, Hubert Smekal, Robert Zbiral (2022): Different but yet the same? Differentiated integration and flexible implementation in the European Union,  West European Politics, https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2022.2150944

As a part of the EUROBORD project, my co-authors and I work on the importance of attitudes, norms and identities with regard to borders. We examine how political identities can influence the perceptions of border agencies, what bordering preferences citizens have and what attitudes and emotions moderate these preferences. To test these questions, we employ survey experiments and text-as-data approaches 

• Lipps, Jana, Ronja Sczepanski, Giorgio Malet (2023): Policy characteristics and public support for border security, Working paper, available upon request

• Sczepanski, Ronja, Giorgio Malet, Jana Lipps (2023): The effects of not punishing norm violations: Evidence from a survey experiment, Work in progress