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- Convenors:
-
Sebastian Dümling
(Universität Basel)
Johannes Springer (University of Göttingen)
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- Stream:
- Politics and Social Movements
- Location:
- Aula 29
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 17 April, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Madrid
Short Abstract:
The panel's aim is to shed light on one important aspect of contemporary populist transformations: the references to 'the common people'. The hypothesis asserts that one can observe the renaissance of the motif "the common people" in politics, popular culture, subcultures etc.
Long Abstract:
As diverse as the global populist movements might seem - from Modi's Hindu radicalism, the British Brexit-nationalism to the US altright-movement - a common thread that binds them together is the crucial importance of constructions of "the people". While "the people" is a very embattled category, which can be appropriated from different political projects particular emphasis in most of the current movements is placed on the juxtaposition with governing, political, cultural, economic elites (mostly imagined and pictured as corrupt). This dialogic relationship must be understood as culturally productive in all sorts of ways. After all, contemporary discourses abound with narratives, semantics, and pictures of the popular and its opponent - the elite. This might be the reason for their success, as new interpretations of social, cultural and political realities, with the figure of "the common people" at its core, are shaped and carved out, always tapping into culturally available patterns of the people in past movements and times of crisis. This motif can not only be found in spheres of politics proper, but also in popular cultural, subcultures etc.: Heroes as stand in for the common people are a mainstay of Hollywood, experts and gatekeepers of traditional media fields are being discredited as academics in discourses in different fields like climate change or migration while the common sense becomes the new point of reference.
Invited are papers dedicated to this complex from either ethnographic or text analytic perspectives, trying to understand the current conjuncture of "common-people-politics" in synchronic or diachronic approaches.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 17 April, 2019, -Paper short abstract:
The gap between academic elites and the "common people" is one of the central motives in populism throughout history. The presentation provides some examples and develops a set of interpretations, discussing populism as a possible analytical focus for the cultural studies of class relations.
Paper long abstract:
At the beginning of all references to the "common people" there is a gap - an alleged gap between the educational elites and the people. Academics and intellectuals, it is claimed, have lost contact to the ordinary life of the masses. This argument is an integral part of the current "populist moment", as Chantal Mouffe puts it in her new book about left-wing populism. But it is also a central issue of social movements and cultural reform throughout history. Above all, the "gap discourse" is an instrument of re-regulating and re-positioning imaginations of social order. It pretends to measure the distance between "the elites" and "the people" in order to bridge the divide between the two. By means of this narrative, political and cultural players of all varieties claim to be close to the common people, the imagined "heartland" (Paul Taggart) of society - and they pathetically claim to be the ones who can heal the wounds of social division. My presentation outlines some critical aspects in the history of populism with special regard to the gap discourse. Examples are taken from the fields of Social Reform in Imperial Germany, the history of Volkskunde/Folklore Studies in the German-speaking countries and, finally, current diagnoses of social and cultural division between "the elites" and "the people". Furthermore I will discuss how populism as a mode of adressing the "people" can be understood as an analytical focus for the cultural studies of class relations in general.
Paper short abstract:
Belarus is ruled by a populist, although national nihilist leader, who is challenged by nationalist pro-market labor unions. I trace the genealogy of their populist tropes originating in late Perestroika via archival and ethnographic research of the labor organizations.
Paper long abstract:
This paper deals with competing populisms in the Republic of Belarus: the official discourse of the president Lukashenka and that of the opposition trade unions. In a historical chiasm, the populist president moved from Soviet nostalgia to promoting flexibilization of labor, while the originally pro-market trade-unions had to invent a new language to defend workers' rights. By way of a historically-informed ethnography, I trace the genesis and permutations of the images of the father-figure of the leader and the workers.
Belarusian political regime seems a textbook example of populism. Lukashenka, Belarusian president since 1994, cherishes the fatherly image, sensitive to the grievances of the common people and uncompromising to the corrupt officials and greedy profiteers. He boasts on having created a national economic model of socially-oriented capitalism, which benefits the broad masses and keeps in check the chaos of market. However, as opposed to the textbook wisdom, the Belarusian leadership lacks nationalist ideology and increasingly resorts to neoliberal templates in labor regulation. Labor organizations that resist these policies struggle to formulate a coherent counter-ideology and produce an idiosyncratic populist mixture of nationalism, free-trade liberalism and workerism.
How did this unusual antagonism of paternalistic neoliberalism and labor entrepreneurialism come about? My archival and ethnographic research shows that its roots lie in the ideological climate of Gorbachev's Perestroika, whose heirs were both the Belarusian president and his working-class opponents, as the protests in 1991 which toppled the communist elites, clearing the way for Lukashenka, lacked resources to produce a viable labor movement.
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines how Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party made use of the “common people” motif in the context of the so-called demonetization drive of 2016.
Paper long abstract:
In November 2016, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party’s vigorous campaign against corruption and terrorism culminated in the so-called demonetization drive involving the overnight nullification of all 500 and 1,000 rupee notes. According to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, counterfeit currency was used to finance terrorist activities. In an unscheduled television broadcast, Modi appealed to “common people” to participate in the mahāyajña (“great sacrifice”) for the greater good of the nation, associating demonetization with a Vedic purification ritual. Through demonetization, India was to be purified from (Islamic) terrorism, black money, and rampant corruption.
This paper examines how Modi and the BJP made use of the “common people” motif in the context of demonetization. The paper is based on a discourse analysis of Modi’s televised speech, an online survey about demonetization available in the NaMo mobile app, and the presentation of the survey’s results. I argue that consenting to demonetization was framed as a civic and religious virtue, while those opposing it appeared as anti-nationals. Through demonetization, Modi portrayed himself as a representative of the greater good, a guarantor of the nation’s future.
Paper short abstract:
In Swedish media and published books, there are stories of men who defected from Nazi organisations, and other stories linking becoming “common” with masculinity and nation. In my presentation, I will examine these narratives from an intersectional perspective to understand their constructions of normalcy.
Paper long abstract:
The forming of normalcy is part of paradoxical processes of both social change and stability. Gender issues are often brought to the fore in times of social change. This certainly seems true regarding current debates on what it means to be a man today. Swedish masculinity, especially when addressed as a homogenous entity, is contested.
On the one hand, there are the images of the gender equal Swedish man, brought about not least as a result of Sweden’s entry into the EU coinciding with the appointment to being the world’s most gender equal country. This “soft masculinity” is often spoken of as normal in public debates.
On the other hand, that cluster of new masculinities are used as a counterimage in the production of what in the public debate is viewed as traditional, intolerant and problematic masculinities. These could be seen as emerging from what Michael Kimmel has termed “aggrieved entitlement”, a loss of privileges promised to men by patriarchal and heteronormative structures.
In my presentation, I will examine the stories of right wing men (and some women) told in the media, as well as in (auto)biographic books. What can these stories tell us about how they perceive normalcy and the “common people”? Many of the stories are told by defectors from Nazi organisations, which spurs questions concerning how they perceive this defection in regards to themselves as men, fathers, or citizens, for example.
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the role of the women-centered initiatives in the local elections in Poland (November 2018). Through an ethnographic exploration and discourse analysis, the author aims at tracing the populist aspects of political initiatives connected to nationwide women's strike.
Paper long abstract:
Poland is currently facing a democratic backsliding - ruled by an authoritarian, populist party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość) that is presenting itself as the voice of "the People". This populist approach is nothing new in polish politics - as Juraj Buzalka claims - polish politics was always populist. This approach is not unique for the ruling party and seems to be a common strategy to win the elections.
The women's marches triggered by the attempt to make anti-abortion law stricter try to change the status quo and redefine the current politics by collective actions, which may lead to a new political order in Poland. Activists of the marches became a visible political force that plays an active role as non-parliamentary opposition and formed civic committees that run in the local elections. Though grassroots approach and a-political self-definition of some of the activists the movement, a populist narration remains dominant for those committees during the electoral campaign.
The paper is based on the discourse analysis of the content produced by those committees during and after the campaign and aims at exploring the role of the populist narrations in constituting the political agenda. It also examines the possibility of remolding social movement to political parties and the possibility of having a women-centered populism as a counterforce to currently ruling party, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość.
Paper short abstract:
The connection between conspiracy theory and populism is evident in recent political developments. The narrative of "the common people" is used in an attempt to legitimise conspiracy theories and emphasizes the need to take action. This becomes clear in the analysis of Alex Jones' documentaries.
Paper long abstract:
Contemporary conspiracy theories tend to focus on "those at the top" instead of minorities. They are highly influenced by the idea of "the common people" fighting a corrupt elite. The followers use this narrative to re-frame any opposition as an attempt to 'shut them up'. However, if a member of their community has a background in these elitist structures yet holds similar beliefs, the community can use their status to generate more trust and social capital. The idea of "the common people" also amplifies the Manichaeism: in the conspiracy theorists' worldview, a clear picture of good and evil is backed up by the positive connotation of the term "the common people". Some conspiracy theories directly address their audiences, and call on them to take action against the alleged conspirators. Therefore the narrative of "the common people" invokes the symbiotic link between populism and conspiracy theories.
Many conspiracy theories refer back to this narrative. It is the reason for the current success of Alex Jones. The former radio host became America's most influential conspiracy theorist - maybe even worldwide. He gained attention through his support of Donald Trump and critique of Hillary Clinton, that included the accusation of being part of the establishment, in addition to several conspiracy theories. This talk will focus on three documentaries, which were either produced or directed by Alex Jones. They will be analysed concerning the mechanisms of how they make use of the "common people"-narrative and towards their affiliation to populism.
Paper short abstract:
In my paper I'd like to discuss the cultural function of the ostensible dichotomy "common people-elite" used in contemporary conspiracy narrations on an empirical basis.
Paper long abstract:
What has long been the key concept of early anthropological research - the "common people" - seems to be one of the most striking metaphors used by recent populist protagonists. Especially in narrations about so-called "conspiracies from above" (see Butter 2018, 31 f.), that often try to unmask the government as the root of all evil invading "our" everyday life, the binary figure of "us and them" is almost pervasive. In my paper I'd like to discuss the cultural function of this ostensible dichotomy by using empirical case examples. It might be obvious that the people who force a separation between "common people" and some elite, who try to mobilize solidarity among the (supposed) oppressed, simply want to recruit others for abstruse or even antidemocratic agendas. From an anthropological point of view we should take a closer look at the different kinds of solidarity (or better: semantics of solidarity) evoked in the field to gain a deeper understanding of a - in part - worrying social phenomenon of our times.
Butter, Michael (2018). "Nichts ist, wie es scheint". Über Verschwörungstheorien. Berlin.