(Populist, Alt or Far Right) Epistemic Contestation of the (Liberal Democratic) Hegemony

Abstract

This panel explores counter-hegemonic movements and articulations in the US and diverse European contexts. The papers examine how epistemic contestation takes place in contemporary politics in varied institutional and discursive landscapes. These interventions challenging liberal democratic hegemony take various forms, from social media to newspaper articles, from electoral campaigns to nostalgic past-building as a community-mobilising tool. The panel argues that whereas usually we have been dealing with these populist, far-right or alt-right, illiberal or Christian conservative movements as separate or entangled cases, spending a lot of time defining each of the categories, we should not overlook the counter-hegemonic epistemic contestation that takes place in these political initiatives. Taking this perspective enables us to see connections between these heterogenous political initiatives allowing us to approach them as parts of a larger political project that contests the key premises of the established liberal democratic order. By operationalising the category of hegemony, the panel enables proponents of liberal democracy to be more self-reflective on what are its strong points and how the epistemic challengers are exploiting the paradoxes of liberalism, the resilience of liberal institutions, and the liberal mindset.

Title	Details
The contentious knowledge production on online extremism and its prevention	View Paper Details
Challenging the (Liberal Democratic) Hegemony? Rights and Freedoms in Far-Right Electoral Discourses	View Paper Details
Hegemonic, counterhegemonic, or pro-women's rights?: Meta-journalistic discourse on "Women's Strike" in Poland	View Paper Details
French Far-Right Populism Resisting Hegemony: Examining Crisis Performance Amid Russia's War on Ukraine	View Paper Details
Fight for biblical foetal personhood in liberal-secular America: Contesting the hegemonic views on religion, science, and liberalism	View Paper Details