Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2023

Filling the Voids – The Janus Face of Populism in Marginal Areas

Résumé

There is a widespread empirical evidence that some places and people have been ‘left behind’ by political decision-makers, especially in the context of the increasing concentration of wealth and the corresponding decline of public services (Rodríguez-Pose 2017 and 2020). People living in marginal areas are widely thought to be particularly receptive to populist discourse promising to give back control to ordinary people. Rather than dismissing populist trends as ‘regressive and dangerous’, this paper seeks to explore the progressive democratic potential of populism when it seeks to give expression to popular demands in a way that is pluralistic and inclusive. It thus encourages us to think critically about what is commonly thought of as ‘populism’. We first will show how regressive populists advance an exclusionary nationalist agenda, reducing citizenship to abstract membership of the nation state and thus failing to empower local communities in any meaningful way, exacerbating sentiments of powerlessness and marginality. We will explore how they tend to reinforce divisions and distance between different components of civil society by fuelling community divisions and breaking down the bonds of solidarity that can exist between citizens. In the second section, we will illustrate how different types of inequalities concentrate and interact in marginalized areas: economic ones (income and wealth), access to the foundational infrastructures of citizenship (transport, education, services for daily life), but also ‘recognition inequalities’. We will demonstrate how place-sensitive policies can effectively tackle these three forms of inequalities and nurture inclusive identities and a positive sense of belonging. In the third section, we will illustrate the ways in which those who inhabit marginal areas might thus be empowered in a progressive and inclusive way. We will adopt what Copson has described as a ‘reinvigorationist approach’ as opposed to an ‘insulationist/elitist approach’ to populist trends (Copson, 2016). Whilst the latter entails insulating policy-making from the public and confining it to the ‘experts’, the former entails taking populism seriously from an empirical viewpoint and confronting it with the topics of democratic debate regarding popular deliberation, participation and control. All in all, the paper seeks to challenge the widespread idea that populist sentiment should be ignored, arguing that there is progressive potential inherent in the populist moment

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Dates et versions

hal-04905451 , version 1 (22-01-2025)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-04905451 , version 1

Citer

Emma Bell, Filippo Barbera. Filling the Voids – The Janus Face of Populism in Marginal Areas. Territories and Identities: A critical perspective on belonging, Department of Social and Political Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore (SNS). Palazzo Strozzi, Piazza Strozzi – 50123, Florence, Italy, Nov 2023, Florence (IT), Italy. ⟨hal-04905451⟩
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