About this Research Topic
Since the discontent and the challenges many countries faced after the Great Recession, new and old political parties of the left and the right started to challenge the political elites with recourse to the “will of the people.” Refugee crises (e.g., Ukraine, Syria, Venezuela) generated new opportunities for populist leaders to instrumentalize fears and grievances. This led to the burgeoning literature on populism but, despite nationalism, nativism, and migration featuring prominently within the populist parties’ discourse and the research that followed, not enough attention has been paid to the relationship between populism and borders. Borders are constituted by, and constitutive of, populist discourses. Borders shape shared understandings of the self and the community and are central elements in the performative constitution of the people. As such, they are tools of exclusion used to categorize individuals along territorial, linguistic, religious, or biological traits.
Populism has an important relational component as it implies a process of (re)creation of political identities via an established antagonism between us, 'the people,' and them, 'the other.' Political, geographical, social, and economic borders shape shared understandings of the self and the community and are central elements in the performative constitution of the people. This Research Topic aims to create an interdisciplinary dialogue focused on the interplay between populism and the border. We welcome papers focusing on the empirical use and the theoretical conceptualizations of ‘borders’ within populist discourses, as well as papers exploring the relevance of citizens’ attitudes and beliefs regarding borders and bordering practices. We are open to papers that focus on any conceptual dimension of borders/frontiers, be that geographical, political, or ideational. We also seek to shed light on how frontiers and social boundaries are utilized to construct and ‘decontest’ a certain meaning of ‘the people,’ establishing hierarchical social distinctions between the ‘authentic people’ and the ‘undeserving other.’
The Research Topic seeks to focus current debates on the articulation of borders within populist ideas, discourses, performances, and strategies and is open to papers from a variety of disciplines as well as interdisciplinary approaches. We invite papers focusing on theoretical/normative and empirical/comparative aspects of populism and borders, and we encourage the problematization of the concept of ‘borders.’ In addition to the usual radical right-wing parties in Western countries, this collection of articles seeks to incorporate case studies from other geographic areas (Latin America, Asia, etc.) and ideological standpoints (e.g., left-wing populism and substate independence movements). The relationship between borders and populism can be examined at the level of polity, politics, and/or policy. We also expect contributions analyzing media representations of the border and border related political crises, psychosocial factors underpinning prejudice and exclusion and the role of political frames and language in the justification of (re)bordering practices.
Populism has an important relational component as it implies a process of (re)creation of political identities via an established antagonism between us, 'the people,' and them, 'the other.' Political, geographical, social, and economic borders shape shared understandings of the self and the community and are central elements in the performative constitution of the people. This Research Topic aims to create an interdisciplinary dialogue focused on the interplay between populism and the border. We welcome papers focusing on the empirical use and the theoretical conceptualizations of ‘borders’ within populist discourses, as well as papers exploring the relevance of citizens’ attitudes and beliefs regarding borders and bordering practices. We are open to papers that focus on any conceptual dimension of borders/frontiers, be that geographical, political, or ideational. We also seek to shed light on how frontiers and social boundaries are utilized to construct and ‘decontest’ a certain meaning of ‘the people,’ establishing hierarchical social distinctions between the ‘authentic people’ and the ‘undeserving other.’
The Research Topic seeks to focus current debates on the articulation of borders within populist ideas, discourses, performances, and strategies and is open to papers from a variety of disciplines as well as interdisciplinary approaches. We invite papers focusing on theoretical/normative and empirical/comparative aspects of populism and borders, and we encourage the problematization of the concept of ‘borders.’ In addition to the usual radical right-wing parties in Western countries, this collection of articles seeks to incorporate case studies from other geographic areas (Latin America, Asia, etc.) and ideological standpoints (e.g., left-wing populism and substate independence movements). The relationship between borders and populism can be examined at the level of polity, politics, and/or policy. We also expect contributions analyzing media representations of the border and border related political crises, psychosocial factors underpinning prejudice and exclusion and the role of political frames and language in the justification of (re)bordering practices.
Keywords: Populism, borders, migration, media, nationalism, nativism, refugees, radical right, Euroscepticism
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
