The Fifth HEPP Conference: Emotions, Populism and Polarised Politics, Media, and Culture

Since 2019, the HEPP conferences have provided a space to explore themes related to populist mobilisation, polarisation, and the dynamics of emotional engagement in various political and mediatised contexts. Our thematic core remains the same this year, and the HEPP5 conference will also include a special focus on the relationship between populism, polarisation, and emotions and the heuristic device of the social contract, understood as a tacit agreement among the members of society on the principles of the polity. The conference particularly invites investigations into how social contracts as societal consensuses and sources of solidarity are challenged by polarisation and exploited by populist politics and how these phenomena affect societies’ well-being and democratic trajectories. We also encourage contributions on the notion of resilience. We also aim to explore how populism and emotional mobilisation renew or create new social contracts. HEPP5 also marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radically Democratic Politics by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, which has been an inspiration at HEPPsinki since its founding.