Suchergebnisse

The first decades of the 21st century have witnessed a remarkable populist upsurge, which has been closely followed by political analysts, academics and the media amongst others. Focusing mostly on the political or socio-economic determinants of the populist success, the importance of cultural factors tends to be underestimated. Populism and culture are usually considered in terms of mutual exclusion; populists reject culture as a waste of time and money (so-called "left-wing hobbies") while culture considers populism as its disturbing Other. This dissertation will problematize that view, demonstrating that the relationship between populism and culture is in fact multi-faceted. Culture shapes the populist constructs of Self and Other, which in turn are omnipresent in our cultural debates. Part 1 of this dissertation establishes an interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological framework, with the aim to uncover the complex relationship between populism and culture. In part 2, this framework is applied to two controversial cultural works in the Netherlands and France: the film Submission (2004) by Theo van Gogh and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and the novel Soumission (2015) by Michel Houellebecq. These analyses reveal that populists in both countries are prominent contributors to cultural debates, even if these concern highbrow literary works such as Houellebecq's. Additionally, the study finds that populist rhetoric is not exclusive to populist politicians, instead there are obvious similarities between populist discourse and that of mainstream parties. This suggests that populism is deeply engrained in our cultural realities, and vice versa.

Populism is a topic that has been widely studied over the past decades but mostly from a political perspective. These contributions mainly focus on the analysis of populism as a (socio) political phenomenon placed in a historical, global context. A second field of interest covers the mass appeal of populist parties. The latter is not only a timely, highly relevant issue right now but also sheds light on the flaws of liberal democracy. While a lot of academic effort has been put into defining populism and explaining the reasons for its success, the underlying cultural beliefs on which populist 'us and them" dichotomies are based remain unclear. We shall therefore come up with a typology of culture and populism. This typology will reveal how various aspects of culture (such as popular culture, cultural images,and literary works) are prevalent in the populist construction of 'us' and 'them'.Based on examples from France and The Netherlands (two countries with major right-wing populist parties), the typology will differentiate between sociofacts, mentifacts and artifacts (cf. Huxley), and their use and appropriation by populist actors. The artifacts category comprises what I call 'organic authors' and 'appropriated authors', a terminology borrowed from Gramsci. The difference between the two, as will be shown, is the author's identification with and articulation of certain kinds of ideas

Durant les últimes dècades, el populisme ha estat àmpliament estudiat, tot i que des d'una perspectiva majoritàriament política. Les contribucions en aquest camp se centren sobretot en l'anàlisi del populisme com a fenomen sociopolític en el context històric i global. Una altra àrea d'estudi es refereix al suport popular dels partits populistes. Aquesta qüestió, a més de ser de la màxima actualitat, revela les imperfeccions de la democràcia liberal.Tot i que s'ha dedicat un gran esforç acadèmic a proporcionar una definició de populisme i les raons de l'èxit que té, encara queda per aclarir en quines creences culturals es basen els seus arguments populistes que empren una falsadicotomia entre «nosaltres» i «ells». Per aquesta raó, després de fer un breu resum del treball acadèmic que s'ha fet fins avui en les disciplines de la ciència política i els estudis culturals, intentarem presentar una tipologia de la culturai el populisme, que ens ajudarà a entendre per què els diferents aspectes de la cultura (com ara la cultura popular, les imatges culturals i les obres literàries) són de capital importància en la construcció populista del «nosaltres» i l'«ells».La tipologia es basa en els exemples de França i Holanda (dos països amb importants partits de dreta populista) per a distingir entre sociofacts, mentifacts i artifacts (Huxley) i l'ús que tenen en l'apropiació dels actors populistes. L'última categoria es compon d'allò que anomenarem «autors orgànics» i «autors apropiats», en la terminologia emprada per Gramsci. La diferència entre les dues, com es demostrarà, rau en la identificació de l'autor amb un tipus determinatd'idees, així com en l'articulació d'aquestes.

Populism is a topic that has been widely studied over the past decades but mostly from a political perspective. These contributions mainly focus on the analysis of populism as a (socio) political phenomenon placed in a historical, global context. A second field of interest covers the mass appeal of populist parties. The latter is not only a timely, highly relevant issue right now but also sheds light on the flaws of liberal democracy. While a lot of academic effort has been put into defining populism and explaining the reasons for its success, the underlying cultural beliefs on which populist 'us' and 'them' dichotomies are based remain unclear. We shall therefore come up with a typology of culture and populism. This typology will reveal how various aspects of culture (such as popular culture, cultural images, and literary works) are prevalent in the populist construction of 'us' and 'them'. Based on examples from France and The Netherlands (two countries with major right-wing populist parties), the typology will differentiate between sociofacts, mentifacts and artifacts (cf. Huxley), and their use and appropriation by populist actors. The artifacts category comprises what I call 'organic authors' and 'appropriated authors', a terminology borrowed from Gramsci. The difference between the two, as will be shown, is the author's identification with and articulation of certain kinds of ideas.

The recent rise of populism is a topic that has been widely investigated, particularly in the field of political science (Laclau 2005; Mudde 2017; Müller 2016; Žižek 2006). However, the question arises whether populism should only be considered as a purely political phenomenon, or can also be studied from a cultural perspective: through literature, cinema and visual culture for example. The relationship between populism and culture is normally seen as one of mutual exclusion – populism dismisses culture as a waste of time and money, while culture perceives and represents populism as its disturbing Other. But on the other hand, populism's own active use of culture tends to be underestimated. In this present article, I will illustrate these aspects by analyzing the reception of a controversial novel, namely Soumission by Michel Houellebecq (2015). This text has been widely investigated by scholars (Jones 2016; Rosenthal 2015; Spieser-Landes 2017); at the same time, far less scholarly attention has been paid to the cultural appropriation of the text on the part of populist politicians and media. By mapping the public debate on Soumission through a variety of sources (reviews, newspaper articles, interviews, etc.), I will illustrate how French populists have used Houellebecq's novel to define their political agenda, with particular regard to the alleged 'Islamization' or 'Africanization' of Europe. On the other hand, we will see that these populist interpretations fail to grasp the complexity of the work.

In this contribution the author reviews Tussen fout en fraude: Integriteit en oneerlijk gedrag in wetenschappelijk onderzoek by K. Schuijt.

Gary Thomas, How to do your case study (2nd ed.), Los Angeles etc.: Sage, 2016, 288 pp., ISBN 978-1-4462-8265-6 (pbk), € 34,42.

Review
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In this contribution the author reviews The problem-centred interview by A. Witzel en H. Reiter.

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Book review
In this contribution the author reviews Ethics in qualitative research: controversies and contexts by M. Hammersley and A. Traianou.