Populist Mobilization

While much of the political science literature on populism focuses on key political actors within the party system, a good deal less attention has been paid to forms of populist contention that feature ordinary citizens protesting against elite rule and championing the cause of ‘the People’ around the world. Populist Mobilization redresses this imbalance and presents a novel theoretical framework for the study of grassroots populist movements by integrating Laclauian discourse analysis with collective action frame theory. Aslanidis examines two widely influential movements that emerged from the protest cycle of the Great Recession: the Icelandic Pots and Pans Revolution and the Greek indignados. Drawing from semi-structured interviews with activists and an extensive analysis of the movements’ paper trail and audiovisual material, he explores organizational aspects, processes of collective action framing, the construction of collective identities, and the influence of cultural elements. Additionally, the author embarks on a historical exploration of the intellectual roots of populism to dispel the pejorative connotations attached to the concept and advocates for a collaboration between sociologists and political scientists on a comprehensive research agenda for the populist phenomenon that transcends the institutional and non-institutional divide.