An Interdisciplinary Approach to Discourse on Populism

This collection examines the construction and circulation of discourses on populism, charting their role in shaping collective understandings of democracy. This volume advocates for an interdisciplinary approach to the study of populism as a form of categorisation used by several types of actors to label people and phenomena in political and social debate, with the first section highlighting chapters on making such a framework work in practice. Chapters collectively make the case for the possibilities afforded by interdisciplinary perspectives, demonstrating how the interplay of discursive, linguistic, political, and communicative analyses is imperative to understanding discourses on populism as discursive practices embedded in specific contexts. The second section showcases interdisciplinary empirical studies on the uses of populism(s) and populist(s) in various types of political and media discourse in Belgium, France, and Spain in 2019. This focus highlights not only analyses on the uses of this notion in different contexts where actors and actions attached to different ideologies have regularly been qualified as 'populist', but also the value of an interdisciplinary approach in analysing other concepts prevalent in contemporary public discourses more broadly. This book will appeal to scholars interested in populism across disciplinary fields, including discourse analysis, language and communication, media studies, history, and political science, as well as those interested in interdisciplinary research methods.

Laetitia Aulit holds a PhD in Linguistics from UCLouvain and is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher for the TrUMPo project. Anaïs Augé is a Postdoctoral Researcher, Lecturer, and Supervisor at UCLouvain. Barbara De Cock is Professor in Spanish Linguistics at UCLouvain. Min Reuchamps is Professor of Political Science at UCLouvain. Sandrine Roginsky is Professor in Communication Studies at UCLouvain. Coline Rondiat is pursuing a PhD in Linguistics and Political Science at the UCLouvain and the University of Antwerp.

Chapter 1. Introduction: tracking the uses of 'populism' in media and political discourse by Laetitia Aulit, Anaïs Augé, Barbara De Cock, Philippe Hambye, Min Reuchamps, Sandrine Roginsky, and Coline Rondiat, Part I. Methodological framework: how to make interdisciplinary research work?, Chapter 2. Building a multilingual multi-genre corpus for interdisciplinary research: Data selection, collection techniques, and ethical considerations by Barbara De Cock, Eva Rolin, Ferdinand Teuber, and Romane Werner, Chapter 3. Qualitative annotation of populism as a sociopolitical keyword by Philippe Hambye, Barbara De Cock, Raül Nuevo Gascó, Min Reuchamps, Sandrine Roginsky, Coline Rondiat, and Nadezda Shchinova, Chapter 4. Intercoder reliability in qualitative discourse analysis by Coline Rondiat, Christoph Niessen, Barbara De Cock, and Philippe Hambye, Part II. Interdisciplinary empirical studies: on the notion and use of populism in political and media discourse, Chapter 5. On the notion and use of 'populism' and 'populist' in political discourse: a comparative study in Spanish parliamentary debates and politicians' tweets by Laetitia Aulit and Nadezda Shchinova, Chapter 6. A multi-layered and complexified linguistic approach to the analysis of discourse on populism by Laetitia Aulit, Anaïs Augé, Barbara De Cock, Philippe Hambye, and Coline Rondiat, Chapter 7. On the use of populis* in print media: a comparative study of press types in France and French-speaking Belgium by Sandrine Roginsky, Chapter 8. Circulating without circulation? Analysis of the uses of populis* in French and Spanish parliaments, mass media, and social media by Sandrine Roginsky and Raül Nuevo Gasco, Chapter 9. The populist problem: on the uses of populis* in public discourse by Coline Rondiat, Chapter 10. Conclusion: the uses of 'populism' and democratic dynamics by Jessy Bailly and Min Reuchamps, Index.