Populist Encounters: interdisciplinary approaches to populism

The Populist Encounters research group is concerned with different relationships that exist between populism and other ecological, cultural, social, and technological phenomena. Populism has largely been isolated inside debates, frameworks, and theories within political science. Yet, populism, whether right-wing or left-wing, whether in the shape of a party, movement or charismatic figure, impacts and is shaped by different ecological, cultural, and social fields. If we are to grasp the complexity of how populism encounters different sites, we require interdisciplinary research collaboration. The Populist Encounters research group explores how populism (both left and right) reshapes our relationship with the environment, technology, the social world, and how we behave and communicate.

Populism can be understood in multiple ways, but common to all definitions is the premise that populist leaders, regressive or progressive, seek to frame politics and society through a divisive, antagonistic relationship between a corrupt, venal, and out-of-touch “elite” on the one hand, and the pure sovereign “people” on the other. Rather than becoming entrenched in tired definitional debates, Populist Encounters adopts a pluralist approach which recognises the different forms populism takes globally as an ideology, strategy, or discourse to capture the broad scope of populist effects. The regional focus goes beyond the Baltic States to consider populist encounters across the globe in different regions and at various scales. The group is an international collaboration between Rīga Stradiņš University and the University of Lincoln in the UK, encompassing political scientists, anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists, political geographers, and artists.

Research Themes

Environment

Environmental issues have been central to the different claims and grievances that populist movements have had since they first emerged in the US and Russia in the 19th Century. Yet, populism, and particularly the right-wing variant, represents a challenge to the existential issues posed by the climate crisis. This research theme is driven by three central questions: 1) how does populist policy impact the natural world; 2) how does it change humankind's relationship to nature; 3) And conversely, how does the agency of the natural world shape populist policy? Within this research theme, we are exploring different facets of the populist-environmental nexus: 1) theorising and conceptualising populist ecologies; 2) analysing how contemporary agrarian protests in Europe are contributing to the rise of populist movements by shaping the political discourse and policy demands around ecological and food supply issues; 3) exploring the impact of the development of offshore wind on different marine-based industries and resistance that has emerged to such developments and; 4) analysing contemporary narratives about land and nature by investigating the importance of land to Latvian identity, sovereignty, and independence and how those narratives are being shaped by broader global populist discourse.

Culture

This theme seeks to explore how culture is both an agent and site of populism. It takes on two directions. Firstly, to explore the role of the culture industry (as conceptualised by critical theorists Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer) in shaping contemporary populist discourse via certain shifts in the mediation and standardisation of popular culture in Europe. It explores the role of digital content and platform capitalism, reality TV, music and the relationship between conspiracy and celebrity. Secondly, we examine the politicisation of art galleries comparing and contrasting how governments are sacking gallery and museum directors for being too left-wing/too overtly political (in Poland and Hungary) with instances where artists are increasingly marginalised from important prizes and exhibitions if they do not fulfil a progressive (i.e. left-populist) agenda (as in the UK). It illustrates how art can become a site for culture wars between competing visions upon which the values of society should be constructed.

International Relations

This theme will investigate how populists, both left and right, are reshaping the international order via their contribution to international organisations, international regimes and security agreements. It focuses on three specific areas: 1) the extent to which populism is reshaping prior commitments to internationalism, especially with regards to more nativist, economically nationalist policies from right-wing populist governments and how they are affecting European and global trade relations, as well as WTO commitments; 2) the impact of populism on European security. The focus here will be on the security risks posed in the Baltic region, and Eastern Europe more broadly, vis-à-vis the impact of populist discourse on international relations, obligations, and continued membership of security organisations (NATO), especially how this plays out in the context of Russia’s war in Ukraine; 3) the cultural impact of populism on international relations, especially in regards to how populist right-wing discourse via the use of a broader culture war narrative is permeating the media space (both old and new media), and how that in turn is shaping public attitudes towards international relations. In this sense, the theme also seeks to understand the role of AI and technology in promoting disinformation in the European media space and how that impacts questions of geopolitical security.

Group Members

Rico Frederick Isaacs

Visiting professor

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