Sociology of Global Populism (Part III)
Language: English
This panel brings together sociological analyses of populism grounded in lived experiences of economic dislocations and structured social contradictions. We reject reductive views that read populism as a fleeting irrational phenomenon, treat populist attitudes as mere individual attributes, and posit populist leaders as mavericks disconnected from broader power relations. We aim to grasp populism’s roots in social contradictions.
How are experiences of precarity, exploitation, race, and gender linked to populist resonances? How do hegemonic conflicts among economic elites structure populist strategies? What roles do anti-elite resentment, nostalgia, racism, or male chauvinism play in articulating class grievances? Our aim is to analyze populism’s relationship to material inequalities, nationalism, the state-capital nexus and collective imaginaries using diverse theoretical lenses.
We examine how right-wing populist regimes instrumentalize xenophobia, culture wars, and authoritarian militarism to divide the working class while reinforcing economic hegemonies. Recognizing that political-economic forces are filtered through negotiated narratives, we analyze populism’s divergent trajectories.
Our panel is a platform for a holistic, relational analysis of populism. We invite papers that draw on a diverse range of theoretical perspectives, from Marx, Polanyi, Gramsci, Bourdieu, and Poulantzas to postcolonialism and other critical-relational approaches to illuminate the complex interplay of factors shaping populism.