De Cleen, Benjamin and Glynos, Jason (2021) Beyond populism studies. Journal of Language and Politics, 20 (1). pp. 178-195. DOI https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.20044.dec
De Cleen, Benjamin and Glynos, Jason (2021) Beyond populism studies. Journal of Language and Politics, 20 (1). pp. 178-195. DOI https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.20044.dec
De Cleen, Benjamin and Glynos, Jason (2021) Beyond populism studies. Journal of Language and Politics, 20 (1). pp. 178-195. DOI https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.20044.dec
Abstract
Populism’ has become ever more ubiquitous in political analysis, to the extent that ‘populism studies’ appears on course to establishing itself as a field of research in its own right. This article warns about the dangers of such a development. Taking a discourse theoretical approach as our starting point – but also critically engaging with this tradition’s contribution to the hype about populism – we suggest that ‘populism studies’ (and the preoccupation with populism this field embodies) risks reifying populism by focusing on populism as a <jats:italic>phenomenon</jats:italic> ‘as such’, and through an over-reliance on the <jats:italic>concept</jats:italic> of populism to approach that phenomenon. This, we argue, hampers a nuanced and contextualized understanding of the exact role populism plays in different populist politics. This is not a call for abandoning the concept of populism altogether, but a call for de-centring the concept and for moving beyond academia’s ‘populist moment’.
Item Type: | Article |
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Uncontrolled Keywords: | populism; discourse theory; populism studies |
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences Faculty of Social Sciences > Government, Department of |
SWORD Depositor: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Date Deposited: | 15 Dec 2020 09:47 |
Last Modified: | 30 Oct 2024 17:34 |
URI: | http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/29345 |
Available files
Filename: De Cleen and Glynos (2021) Beyond Populism Studies - 2020-11-13- pre-proof version - FINAL - circulation.pdf