International Populism Research Network

ABOUT THE NETWORK

The International Populism Research Network is based in the Political Theory, History of Ideas and Political Culture section at Kiel University (CAU Kiel). It serves as a platform to facilitate international exchange and initiate publication and research projects on the subject of populism.

The network’s activities are centered on new theoretical, qualitative and quantitative approaches to studying the phenomenon of populism worldwide.

It is open to other social science and humanities disciplines beyond the field of political science, such as sociology, philosophy, cultural, media and literature studies, ethnology, visual studies, performance studies, law and history.

The International Populism Research Network organizes academic events (both in-person and online) at CAU Kiel and in collaboration with partner institutes. These include academic conferences, workshops and panels at national and international conferences, international teaching collaborations and events for the general public.

The International Populism Research Network conducts its own research projects and supports doctoral and post doc projects.

It disseminates its research findings in the form of scientific publications and publicizes the core work of its partner organizations.

To give its activities additional visibility, the International Populism Research Network also communicates with the broader public.

ZDF Info – Upcoming Broadcast

Volksversteher - Die Tricks der Populisten

Date: 4 March

Time: 6:45pm – 7:30pm

Broadcast Channel: ZDFinfo

Round Table

Convergences and singularities of Populism, Democratic Backsliding and Resilience in Europe and Beyond

Date: 20 February 2025

Time: 2pm

Location: University of Coimbra, Centre for Social Studies (Alta), Room 1

Organizer: UNPOP project – UNpacking POPulism: Comparing the formation of emotion narratives and their effects on political behaviour

The Round Table brings together scholars from different European countries. The debate will consider how democratic institutions can better respond to the populist upsurge and how the democratic imagination can be strengthened through civic engagement and political innovation.

Participants:

Bilge Yabanci, University of Deusto (Pais Basco)

Camil Ungureanu, Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona, Spain)

Cristiano Gianolla, CES, University of Coimbra (Portugal)

Emilia Palonen, University of Helsinki (Finland)

Giorgia Bulli, University of Florence (Italy)

Marjoke Oosterom, Institute of Development Studies (Brighton, Uk)

Paula Diehl, University of Kiel (Germany)

Workshop

Continuity and Innovation of the Far Right: Practices, Symbols and Discourses

Date: 16 and 17 January 2025

Location: Hamburg Institute for Social Research, Mittelweg 36, 20148 Hamburg

Organizers:

Hamburg Institute for Social Research

Political Theory, History of Ideas and Political Culture Section at Kiel University

International Populism Research Network at Kiel University

The process of mainstreaming and normalizing far-right politics has a longer history that goes back at least to the emergence of the new right in the 1960s and 1970s. Over the past years, however, the strategic and discursive repertoire of the far right has undergone significant changes that need to be considered in order to make sense of its current rise to power. This workshop is dedicated to this relationship between continuity and innovation. Bringing together international scholars from a wide range of disciplines, it puts a particular emphasis on historical, transnational and intersectional research perspectives.

Spiegel Interview

"Populism is like the drunken guest at a dinner party"

USA, Italy, Austria – Right-wing populist parties are on the rise throughout the world. The experts Paula Diehl und Ralf Grabuschnig explain, when established parties lose out in the fight against populism. An interview by Martin Pfaffenzeller und Frank Thadeusz.

The interview is going to be published in the current edition of Spiegel History. It can also be accessed under the following link .

New Book by Théo Aiolfi

The Populist Style: Trump, Le Pen and Performances of the Far Right

Through a comparative case study analysing the 2016 and 2017 presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen, The Populist Style examines the links between far-right ideology and populism. Adopting an interdisciplinary framework combining political science and performance studies, this book develops a critical definition of populism as a style, that is, as a repertoire of political performances that shapes and is given shape by ideological content.

The book was published in January 2025 by Edinburgh University Press. For more information on the book (including access and purchase options), click here.

New Book by Christoffer Kølvraa and Bernhard Forchtner

Imagining Alternative Worlds: Far-Right Fiction and the Power of Cultural Imaginaries

The book explores how the far right employs fictionality as a powerful political tool in the 21st century. It does so by examining the far right’s own cultural production and commentary through a large collection of its novels, novellas, short stories, and film reviews, illustrating how the ‘alternative worlds’ articulated in such cultural products convey its ideology. More specifically, the book identifies and analyses four distinct far-right cultural imaginaries – a ‘primordial’, a ‘nostalgic’, a ‘promethean’, and a ‘nihilist’ one – that each subtly conveys different yet linked ideas about space, time, ‘race’, gender, and heroic identity.

By drawing attention to the cultural heterogeneity of the contemporary far right, Imagining Alternative Worlds offers key insights into the dreams, identities, and norms such actors hope will define our future.

The book was published on 11 November 2024 by Routledge. More information on the book (including access and purchase options) can be found here.

Publication: Paula Diehl and BRIGITTE BARGETZ (eds.)

The Complexity of Populism – New Approaches and Methods

Much as populism has been researched, it remains a contested notion without coherent definition and methodology, and shaped by dimensions such as ideology, communication style, discourse, mobilization, and organization. It has simultaneously mobilized emotions, produced symbols, and affected subjectivity and gender relations and can manifest itself in different ways and appear in hybrid forms, such as in the cases of Silvio Berlusconi, Hugo Chávez, and Donald Trump.

With chapters by Paula Diehl, Carlos de la Torre, Birgit Sauer, Brigitte Bargetz, Stefan Bird-Pollan, Federico Finchelstein, Giorgia Bulli, Martin Reisigl, Mojca Pajnik, Till Weber.

The book was published on July 3, 2023 and can be ordered here.

Open Access: Mojca Pajnik: Transformations of the Media Sphere. Amplifying Opportunity Structures for Populism

Open access Article

Emotion Narratives on the Political Culture of Radical Right Populist Parties in Portugal and Italy

„Emotion Narratives on the Political Culture of Radical Right Populist Parties in Portugal and Italy“. In: Politics and Governance, 2024, Vol. 12.

Authors: Gianolla, C., Mónico, L., & Cruz, M.

Issue: Vol 12 (2024): Challenging Democracy: How Do Ideas of Populists and Disenchanted Citizens Align? (In Progress)

ZDF – MAITHINK Xperts: Populism

Populism in Politics and the Media

What characterises populist rhetoric? When does it become a threat to democracy? Why is it compatible with the media's attention economy? Paula Diehl talks about populism in politics and in the media at MaiThink.

Le Point J – Podcast

C’est quoi le populisme ?

Donald Trump, recently elected as US president, is often called a populist. Just like Viktor Orban, Giorgia Meloni, Marine Le Pen or Jair Bolsonaro… But what exactly is populism? Paula Diehl, professor at Kiel University, enlightens us at Le Point J.

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