Research Areas

Online ethnography / participatory online conversation

Populist themes resonate with a part the European population. To people who reject populism, this resonance can be hard to understand and empathise with, as it seems at odds with the observed long-term trends towards societal prosperity and openness. Conversely, people who find populism attractive cannot reconcile what they perceive as the optimistic narrative of their political adversaries. Our work in this area is a structured effort to listen to the voices of the people on the ground. We hope to learn what the rise of populist politics looks like from the point of view of Europeans living their daily life. We pay special attention to supporters of the populist agenda. Ultimately, we will provide other areas of the project with a breakdown of populism that encodes the point of view of the people directly affected by it, supporters and opposers.