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Following a series of terrorist attacks, online communities for men built around misogyny and resistance to feminist values – commonly known as the manosphere – have recently become subject of scholarly attention. In research, the manosphere is usually explored as a phenomenon in the Western world, often described as a backlash movement in countries where gender equality is most progressive. This thesis seeks to widen the geographical borders of manosphere research by exploring discursive articulations of tropes related to the international manosphere on an open-access Bulgarian online Q&A platform. By choosing this platform as a case study, this project aims to fill a knowledge gap by exploring whether discourses fundamental to international, largely English-language communities of the manosphere are found relevant on a mainstream online space in an Eastern European, Balkan country like Bulgaria, and what (if any) additional locally specific tropes emerge in this context. Drawing on a discourse-historical approach to critical discourse analysis informed by social identity theory, the study seeks to unpack how these tropes serve the practice of online social identity construction, with a focus on whether the social identities that emerge could be classified as potentially extremist. The research problem is approached both by analyzing discursive elements in a purposeful sample of user comments, and by keeping a focus on the affordances of the online platform as a space where these discourses are co-produced and disseminated.

This paper investigates the impact of place-based identity on trust in international organizations and examines the role of civic engagement in reinforcing or mitigating these attitudes. In an era marked by global challenges and increasing polarization, trust in international organizations has become crucial for effective cooperation. Previous research has identified place-based identity as a fundamental social identity that influences out-group attitudes and plays a role in shaping civic engagement outcomes. Drawing on social identity theory and social capital theory, this study employs quantitative methods, utilizing ANES survey data conducted in the United States to explore the relationship between place-based identity and trust in international organizations. Focusing on the distinction between rural- and urban-identifying American citizens, the results reveal that rural-identifying individuals exhibit lower levels of trust in international organizations compared to their urban counterparts. These differences are characterized by marginal yet statistically significant effects. Furthermore, although the conditioning effect of civic engagement is not statistically significant, it provides intriguing insights that suggest it may reinforce the impact of place-based identity, potentially leading to negative effects on trust in civil society. These findings contribute to a broadened understanding of the interplay between identity and political attitudes, shedding light on the factors that influence them.