International Conference
University of Helsinki, Finland / online
March 5–7, 2025
The call for papers and panel proposals is open until November 10, 2024.
Conference
Since 2019, the HEPP conferences have provided a space to explore themes related to populist mobilisation, polarisation, and the dynamics of emotional engagement in various political and mediatised contexts. Our thematic core remains the same this year, and the HEPP5 conference will also include a special focus on the relationship between populism, polarisation, and emotions and the heuristic device of the social contract, understood as a tacit agreement among the members of society on the principles of the polity. The conference particularly invites investigations into how social contracts as societal consensuses and sources of solidarity are challenged by polarisation and exploited by populist politics and how these phenomena affect societies’ well-being and democratic trajectories. We also encourage contributions on the notion of resilience. We also aim to explore how populism and emotional mobilisation renew or create new social contracts. HEPP5 also marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radically Democratic Politics by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, which has been an inspiration at HEPPsinki since its founding.
Traditionally, HEPP conferences have welcomed contributions with a focus on semi-peripheral regions such as the Global South and East Central Europe, and we hope to continue that this year. We also invite papers addressing ongoing conflicts, such as those in the Middle East, Ukraine, Ethiopia, or Venezuela. HEPP maintains a broad take on populism, polarisation, and emotions, and the following themes:
Affects, a(nta)gonism, and political polarisation
Audiovisual political communication
Authoritarianism and illiberalism
Climate, crises, and grievances
Cultural populism, conspiracy theories, and misinformation
Datafication and methods in large social media data
Gender in populism and polarisation
New social contracts and challenges to democracy
Political theory of populism, resilience, and social contracts
Memory politics and the political (mis)use of time and space
Tribalism, nationalism, and racism
Political communication in the 2024 European elections
(Post-)Pandemic populisms and resilience
Hegemony, common grounds, and epistemic populisms
Populist logics and dynamics
Post- and de-colonialism
Political frontiers and “us” building
Political humour and populist rhetoric
Political communication and media in times of war and crisis
Religion and populism
Please find more information on the conference, including links to call for papers and fees: https://www.helsinki.fi/en/conferences/emotions-populism-and-polarised-politics-media-and-culture/hepp-conferences
HEPP5 Organising committee
Chairs: Szilvia Hórvath, Kleber Carrilho
Organising team: Alexander Alekseev, Laura Horsmanheimo, Emilia Palonen and Olena Siden
Conference secretary: Ilana Hartikainen
You can reach the HEPP5 team and the conference secretary via hepp@helsinki.fi.