On the 28th of May this year, The Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo (UiO) hosted a Zoom webinar on questions of nationalism and populism in in the midst of the corona pandemic. Several paradoxes of the present situation are pointed out.
- First, how is populism still seemingly thriving despite its hostility to expertise, something viewed as indispensable in the current pandemic?
- Second, how is it that populism, which has historically been tied to inventions of crisis and crisis-like situations, now instead accuses the media of fabricating the crisis for political motivations?
- And third, what can explain that populism, normally protectionist in nature, is protesting closure to combat corona and instead arguing for a reopening of society.
Professors Rogers Brubaker and Tariq Modood, both well-established and widely cited academics in the fields of sociology, human geography and public policy, presented articles on the paradoxes inherent to present populism and the nascent idea of a multicultural nationalism, respectively.
Katrine Fangen, Professor of Sociology at UiO and MAM project-member, moderated the online seminar, which was recorded and is available for viewing here.
