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We, the people: Political, media and popular discourses of 'us' and 'them'

A Department of Media and Communications public event

When: Friday 26 and Saturday 27 October 2018
Where: Department of Media and Communications, Tower Three , 7th Floor, Silverstone Room, LSE

Populism is on the rise across the world. The elections of Fidesz government in Hungary in 2010 and the Law and Justice party in Poland in 2015, the shocks of Brexit and Trump in 2016 as well as the recent elections in major European states, including Austria, Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, have brought right-wing populist parties closer to power and presented them with an opportunity to shape policy. While there has been much discussion on different political aspects of populism, its persistent attacks on legal institutions of liberal democracy, its likely causes and consequences, our two-day symposium explores the communicative strategies and populist discourses of the ‘people.’ We will explore identity politics as well as the political, media and popular narratives of ‘us’ and ‘them’ in Europe and beyond.

Register for this event here

Programme

Friday 26 October

11:30-12:00: Coffee & Registration

12.00-13:30: Populists, Citizens and the Media: the complex relationship

  • Kira Gartzou-Katsouyanni, LSE
    Greco-German media depictions of the Self and Other during the Eurozone Crisis: Mutual Recognition Lost?
  • Katharine Sarikakis, University of Vienna, LSE Visiting Fellow
    Media and citizens in Greece and beyond: Resistance and Domination through Euro-crisis
  • Marzia Maccaferri, Goldsmiths, University of London
    Five Star Movement ‘Online’ Populism in Historical Perspective
  • Franco Zappettini, University of Liverpool
    The Tabloidization of the Brexit Campaign: Power to the (British) People

  • ChairCharlie Beckett, LSE

13.30-14.30: Lunch

14:30-15:30: Keynote

  • Michał Krzyżanowski, Örebro University & University of Liverpool
    Discursive Shifts and the Normalisation of Exclusion: On Politicisation and Mediatisation of the ‘Refugee Crisis’ in Europe
  • Chair: Lilie Chouliaraki, LSE

15:30-17:00:  Discourses, Narratives and Ideologies of Populism

  • Jonathan Hopkin, LSE
    Post-truth, bullshit and bad ideas: deficit fetishism in contemporary politics
  • Aurelien Mondon, University of Bath (with Aaron Winter, UEL)
    Whiteness, Populism and the Racialisation of the Working-class in the UK and the US
  • Benjamin de Cleen, Vrije Universiteit Brussels (with Péter Csigó, Jason Glynos, Aurelien Mondon)
    Discourses about Populism and Their Effects: Mimesis, Ideology, Bubble and Hype

17:00-17:30:  Coffee break

17:30-18:30: Keynote

  • Yannis Stavrakakis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki 
    Challenges in Contemporary Populism Research

Saturday 27 October

10:00-11:15 :  Politics of exclusion: media and political representations of ‘Other’

  • Myria Georgiou, LSE and Rafal Zaborowski, King’s College London
    Heroes and strangers: media representations of Europe’s “refugee crisis”
  • Marek Troszynski, Collegium Civitas
    Poland’s liberal and illiberal encounters with refugees
  • Gholam Khiabany, Goldsmiths, University of London
    Refugee crisis, imperialism and pitiless wars on the poor

11:15-12:15 : Keynote

  • Michael Cox, LSE
    The Rise of Populism and the Crisis of Globalisation: Brexit, Trump and Beyond
  • Chair: Robin Mansell, LSE

12:15-12:45: Lunch

12:45-14:00: The New Right in the New Europe: political and popular narratives of change

  • József Böröcz, Rutgers
    The Unbearable Whiteness of the Polish Plumber and the Hungarian Peacock Dance around ‘Race’
  • Stanislaw Mocek, Collegium Civitas, Eva Polonska, LSE
    Poles Apart: political and popular discourses of nation, democracy and Europe
  • Seán Hanley, UCL
    Understanding the illiberal turn: democratic backsliding in the Czech Republi

14:00-14:30:  Coffee break

14:30-15:30: Keynote

  • Francisco Panizza, LSE
    Populism and Identification
  • Chair: Robin Mansell, LSE

15:30-17:00: Discourses of democratic values and ‘Europe’

  • Gilles Ivaldi, University of Nice
    Radical right and EU-pessimism in France
  • Roch Dunin-Wasowicz, UCL
    Generation Brexit: what do young people in Britain say about Europe?
  • Stijn van Kessel, Queen Mary University of London
    The populist politics of Euroscepticism in times of crisis: comparative conclusions