Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AoD (Articulations of Desire: Populism and the Future of Democracy)
Reporting period: 2021-06-01 to 2024-05-31
This project addressed discrepancies between institutional democracy and its justification as representing “the people."' By focusing on democracy as expressing, or at least intending to express, the will of the populace, desire took center stage. Foundational to understanding the actual functioning of contemporary democracy, desire serves as an elusive legitimating principle, where invocations of the "consent of the geverned" and other such formulations abound. Initially, populism was posited as an expression of excess desire that could not be contained within the bounds of institutional democracy. This hypothesis held up, albeit in a novel way. In its conclusions, this research supports a theory of populism as a kind of political “mood” which conditions the realms of possibility attached to political practices. While populism provides perhaps the most obvious demonstration of desires excluded from the scope of traditional democratic politics, it is not the only mood available and only forms one node of democratic excess. Furthermore, the excision of desires incompatible with the status quo only serves to see them return in a virulent form. As populist movements have shown, these desires returns with a vengeance.The contemporary democratic state will hurl accusations of populism and resentment at anything outside of standard procedure, forgetting a foundational element of constituency building: namely, turning from what is to what could be. This requires the articulation of a possible future that would foundationally change institutions themselves, and comprise a new system and practices. While populism can be directed any which way on the political spectrum, this research has demonstrated that populism is not really the issue but a symptom, and desire the underlying culprit since it serves as the very ground for what is thought collectively possible. To this end, the project's research on populism has led to a broader theory of political desire, paying particular attention to the semiotic and symbolic dimensions required to forge a democratic future.
*NB - For project photos, specifically the various promotional materials, please see the website as the files were too large to upload, but they can be pulled from there or sent in a different file. They do give a sense of project activities and are worthwhile to give a sense of how the project unfolded.
*NB - For project photos, specifically the various promotional materials, please see the website as the files were too large to upload, but they can be pulled from there or sent in a different file. They do give a sense of project activities and are worthwhile to give a sense of how the project unfolded.
Work for the project was made up of 2 main components: individual research and group communication and outreach efforts. The individual research was performed on the aformentioned topics with the production of papers. Articles from this research are forthcoming, and include a paper on the incompatibility of capitalism and democracy as competing claims on desire, a paper that elaborates the "populist mood" co-written with Jamie van der Klaauw, and a forthcoming paper on desire and democratic constituency building. Furthermore, there are collected volumes in progress stemming from the communication activities and include a collected volume and special journal issue. These are not the only publications foreseen, as a monograph that synthesizes this research is planned, but will still take some time to get together.
The group component was part of the project's communication strategy and was much broader and more successful than anticipated, culminating in the Desire + Capital working group. In total, the group hosted 8 events, including the project's capstone conference, seeing around 30 international scholars come to Rotterdam including Bonnie Honig, Etienne Balibar, Jodi Dean, and McKenzie Wark among many others. The public events, seminars and lectures were attended by between 70-100 people each in the end, ensuring that the project research was widely communicated. The project also saw the production of 5 podcast episodes (and 7 more forthcoming) with over 1200 downloads providing still another avenue to discuss project research.
The group component was part of the project's communication strategy and was much broader and more successful than anticipated, culminating in the Desire + Capital working group. In total, the group hosted 8 events, including the project's capstone conference, seeing around 30 international scholars come to Rotterdam including Bonnie Honig, Etienne Balibar, Jodi Dean, and McKenzie Wark among many others. The public events, seminars and lectures were attended by between 70-100 people each in the end, ensuring that the project research was widely communicated. The project also saw the production of 5 podcast episodes (and 7 more forthcoming) with over 1200 downloads providing still another avenue to discuss project research.
This project has wide-reaching implications, only intensifying in the current political climate. As we seek to understand what drives voters and political movements, it is now more important than ever to focus not on rational contradictions, since this is quite clearly not what motivates voters, but on the capacity of democracy to express other, more desirous possibilities. The project proposed that the "problem" of populism runs much deeper, and the research has borne this out. One unanticipated consequence of this relevance is that there is constant new material for analysis. Indeed, untangling the electoral web of the past few years was invigorating albeit at times a vertiginous experience. As with much philosophy research, these implications cannot be quantified. However, providing a more coherent and broader theory of populism in democratic institutions helps us understand them better. In this sense, the project reached beyond populism as a challenge to democracy, seeing it as democracy's counterpoint and sine qua non.
By pushing beyond a simplistic understanding of populism, and from the vantage point of this project most views on the topic are quite simplistic, this research tackled difficult questions that are relevant for creating a more democratic and inclusive future. While democratic institutions are necessarily slow to adjust, it seems they always attempt to adjust back to the status quo as they are inherently reactionary to any challenges. This research argues that this is not a viable plan for the future of democracy. And while this is certainly not a plea for more populism or populism done better, it does present populism as giving us insights into these chortcomings, particularly as they relate to possible futures. While much may be directed in the halls of the EU, voter discontent shows no sign of flagging, and this challenge can only be met with innovative thought and research that reflects on the dynamics at play prior to their moralization and inculcation as simply how things are. In oher words, while much of actually existing populism is troublesome, the insights gained from its analysis may be the only way to salvage democracy.
By pushing beyond a simplistic understanding of populism, and from the vantage point of this project most views on the topic are quite simplistic, this research tackled difficult questions that are relevant for creating a more democratic and inclusive future. While democratic institutions are necessarily slow to adjust, it seems they always attempt to adjust back to the status quo as they are inherently reactionary to any challenges. This research argues that this is not a viable plan for the future of democracy. And while this is certainly not a plea for more populism or populism done better, it does present populism as giving us insights into these chortcomings, particularly as they relate to possible futures. While much may be directed in the halls of the EU, voter discontent shows no sign of flagging, and this challenge can only be met with innovative thought and research that reflects on the dynamics at play prior to their moralization and inculcation as simply how things are. In oher words, while much of actually existing populism is troublesome, the insights gained from its analysis may be the only way to salvage democracy.