This conference will build upon the themes and discussions that we opened during our successful First and Second Helsinki Conferences on Emotions, Populism and Polarisation in August 2019 and May 2021, respectively. The conference has a focus on discursive, interpretive and postfoundational approaches on the triage of populism, affects and polarisation. This conference is particularly focused on the Whirl of Knowledge: Cultural Populism and Polarisation in Contemporary European Societies Academy of Finland project 2019-22; as such, we aim to explore the creation, flow, and mediations of knowledge and the various actors from different segments of society who play a role in this process in online and offline spaces. It is also an important meeting point for other HEPPsinki research groups projects as well. Now Time Us Space: Contemporary Mobilisations in Central Eastern Europe besides online spaces, deals with urban cityscapes and polarisation and is funded by the Kone Foundation (2020-23). Other currently running HEPPsinki projects deal with (de)radicalisation, political humour and populism.
You can find the submission instructions on the website of the Conference.
The conference will assemble a range of international researchers at all career stages, with the aim of examining populism particularly from a discursive and cultural approach. We welcome contributions from political science, media studies, social psychology, history, anthropology, sociology, memory studies, gender studies, urban studies, and other related fields. The conference encourages papers that approach the following and related themes:
- Populism and polarisation as political and cultural phenomena
- Empathy and ressentiment
- Agonism and antagonism
- Gender in populism and polarisation
- Cultural populism
- Politicisation of and within Europe and its regions
- Common grounds and communities of knowledge
- Epistemic populism
- Pandemic populisms and antagonisms
- Political communication and media in times of crisis and polarisation
Organisers: HEPPsinki research group
Organising Committee of HEPP3: Virpi Salojärvi (chair), Ilana Hartikainen (co-chair), Sabine Volk (co-chair), Ionut Chiruta, Emilia Palonen, and Marina Vulovic
You can reach the HEPP3 team and conference secretaries (Laura Horsmanheimo and Roosa Kylli) at hepp@helsinki.fi