In several democratic elections last year, radical right-wing populist movements have gained momentum, capturing the votes of working-class and minority communities. What has attracted voters to these political parties? In cooperation with the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS-KNAW), the Van Leer Institute and the Max-Weber-Institute-for-Sociology, De Balie organizes an event on the appeal of the populist right-wing movement.
In the months after Donald Trump’s second presidential win, Democrats are asking themselves the uncomfortable question: how did we lose the working class vote? Republicans gained strong support from white workers in labor unions without a college degree, and also made significant gains among non-white Americans with similar education levels. Many left-leaning progressive political movements elsewhere, including in the Netherlands, are now engaged in a similar process of soul-searching as the radical right gains ground internationally.
With cultural sociologists Michèle Lamont (Harvard University), Nissim Mizrachi (Tel Aviv University, Van Leer Institute), and Elisabeth Jane Topkara (Heidelberg University), we explore how marginalization, stigma, and neoliberal society can turn people toward populist right-wing political parties.
What role does the need for belonging play in this electoral shift to the radical right? And what strategies can minority groups use to counter stigmatization in a polarized society?
About the speakers
Michèle Lamont is a Harvard University Professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies and a fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS-KNAW). As a cultural sociologist, Lamont studies morality, group boundaries, and inequality and how we evaluate social worth across societies. In her most recent work, Seeing Others, Lamont argues that neoliberal values like self-reliance and competition have deepened divides by stigmatizing the working class, people of color, and LGBTQIA+ communities.
Nissim Mizrachi is a professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Tel Aviv University and head of the Challenge of Shared Life-cluster at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. In his work Beyond Suspicion: The Moral Clash Between Rootedness and Progressive Liberalism, Mizrachi challenges the dominance of the liberal-progressive perspective in understanding inclusion, and focuses on the moral tensions between rootedness and liberalism.
Elisabeth Jane Topkara is a fellow at the Max-Weber-Institute-for-Sociology at Heidelberg University. As a cultural sociologist, her research centers on the cultural construction and the contestation of borders and boundaries. Topkara studies how migration and pluralism shape contemporary societies, including the continued exclusions faced by Muslims in Europe; and the agency of Muslim and Jewish populaces to foster social change in Europe and the United States.
Sprekers
De Warme Winkel, ITA, Orkater, Discordia, ’t Barre Land, theater RAST en Wunderbaum presenteren De kersentuin
Het Nederlands theater zit al jaren in de hoek waar de klappen vallen. Al vijftien jaar wordt er op het theater bezuinigd. Ook afgelopen jaar zijn veel toonaangevende gezelschappen hun subsidie kwijtgeraakt. Wat betekent dit voor het theater? Dat onderzoeken we aan de hand van een theaterlezing van Tsjechovs De kersentuin.
On democracy in disrepair
Bonnie Honig is one of the world’s foremost democratic theorists. Arnon Grunberg will engage in conversation with Honig about, among other topics, Hannah Arendt, shock politics, and democracy in disrepair.
Techdenkers
Mag je uit naam van de veiligheid een bevolkingsgroep (online) surveilleren? In deze editie van Techdenkers gaan we in gesprek over de controversiële methodes die gemeenten hanteerden om moskeeën in de gaten te houden.
