Populism Research Today: Challenges and Innovations

About

It focuses on the current state of populism research within political science and beyond. It will familiarise you with the long history of populist phenomena as well as with the various attempts by political research to map, interpret and theorise them diachronically. Special emphasis will be given to the limitations of mainstream approaches and to the conceptual, methodological and analytical challenges marking contemporary populism research. Last but not least, a set of conceptual and methodological innovations will be presented and discussed in a bid to facilitate the reinvigoration of populism research.

ECTS Credits
3 ECTS credits awarded for engaging fully in class activities.
1 additional ECTS credit awarded for completing a post-course assignment

Course leader

Yannis Stavrakakis is Professor of Political Discourse Analysis at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where he is currently directing the Postgraduate Programme in Political Theory and the Laboratory for the Study of Democracy (both at the School of Political Sciences) as well as the POPULISMUS Observatory. His research primarily focuses on contemporary political theory (with emphasis on psychoanalytic and post-structuralist approaches) and the analysis of ideology and discourse in late modern societies (with emphasis on populism and anti-populism, post-democracy and the role of artistic practices). He is the author of Lacan and the Political (London: Routledge, 1999), The Lacanian Left (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press/Albany: SUNY Press, 2007), and Populist Discourse: Recasting Populism Research (New York: Routledge 2024). He is also editor of the Routledge Handbook of Psychoanalytic Political Theory (New York: Routledge, 2020) and co-editor of the Research Handbook on Populism (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2024)

Target group

Social science researchers

Course aim

By the end of this course, you will have developed:
- awareness of the multi-faceted genealogy of the phenomenon of populism in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
- comprehension of the complexities of populist politics today in a comparative perspective.
- critical reflexivity in dealing with “populism” conceptually beyond stereotypical formulations.
- familiarisation with a set of nuanced methodological tools able to advance political study and especially populism research.
- an enriched democratic sensibility as reflected in the rigorous study of populism

Fee info