Summary: "Contention in Times of Crisis presents key findings from a joint effort of the project 'Political Conflict in Europe in the Shadow of the Great Recession' (POLCON), funded by the European Research Council, and the project 'Years of Turmoil : The Political Consequences of the Financial and Economic Crisis in Europe', funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Our joint effort focuses on the development of European democracies and political conflict in the context of the Great Recession. Since the world entered the Great Recession with the breakdown of Lehman Brothers in autumn 2008, commentators have been worrying about the political repercussions of the economic crisis. The spectre of the 1930s has been haunting many observers of European politics, and the most pessimistic among them have been wondering whether democracy is going to survive in the face of the grave economic consequences of the crisis"