Laclau Research Articles

The antinomies of Ernesto Laclau: a reassessment

ABSTRACT This article provides an internal assessment of Ernesto Laclau’s theory of populism. While critiques of Laclau have been made from a variety of traditions, few scholars have sought to work through the contradictions of his thought on internal terms. This article identifies some key antinomies in Laclau’s oeuvre and hints at some redemptive strategies. It starts with a short summary of Laclau’s conception of populism in contextual and conceptual fashion. Subsequently, four possible deficits of Laclau’s theory are examined, ranging from a tension between verticality and horizontality, an ahistorical dimension, a descriptive and normative hyperformalism, and the lack of a reflexive approach to the term ‘populism’ itself. The article finishes with a fresh research agenda for ‘post-Laclauian’ theories of populism.

El populismo más allá del estigma: configuración hegemónica y construcción de lo político

El populismo sigue siendo un fenómeno controversial, a pesar de los aportes de Ernesto Laclau o Chantal Mouffe, guiados a comprenderlo. De ahí que, en este trabajo, que rechaza los reduccionismos y los esencialismos con los cuales se ha juzgado a las diversas manifestaciones de proyectos políticos populistas; se intenta desentrañar los alcances del populismo, yendo más allá de la concepción actual que bien lo entiende como mera reacción contestaria o antípoda de las instituciones. Profundizando en la capacidad que tiene para construir sentido y no solo como estrategia para la conquista del poder político.

A theory of hope in critical pedagogy: An interpretation of Henry Giroux

This paper examines Henry Giroux’s critical pedagogy, and explores the interconnections among education, democracy, and hope. Whereas critical pedagogy rejects foundationalism, it still requires a normative foundation to criticise oppressive situations and pose a vision of the future. Giroux rejects foundationalism and regards oppressive force such as neoliberalism as an enemy of both hope and democracy. He regards hope as an act of imagination, something to be cultivated, which can be regarded as a medium of mobilisation. This seems inconsistent with the tenets of critical pedagogy, as mobilisation is often thought to suppress individual human agency, which Giroux and other critical pedagogues have emphasised heavily. This paper solves this inconsistency via the radical democracy advocated by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe and Gramscian insights regarding hegemony and education, and redefines the role of hope in Giroux's theory. Giroux’s framing of hope moves us towards certain normative claims and mobilises people to desire democracy as a normative foundation for society.

"If at First You don't Succeed": Why Žižek Failed in France but Succeeded in England.

This article sociologically explains the initial phase of Slavoj Žižek's emergence as global public intellectual. Drawing on positioning theory, the article contributes to previous works on Žižek's performativity by focusing on his contextuality. It examines how his intellectual interventions depended on the context in which they were performed, and on the relations to other intellectuals positioned in that context. The article argues that (1) Žižek's first attempt to intervene internationally was in France; (2) this attempt was a failure; and (3) his second attempt in England was a success. It also demonstrates that vouching is paramount to intellectual positioning: while Jacques-Alain Miller positioned Žižek along practico-clinical lines in the French context, Ernesto Laclau positioned Žižek along politico-philosophical lines in the English context. Consequently, the latter positioning facilitated a public resonance that would lead to Žižek's global success.

A (IM)POSSIBILIDADE DA EDUCAÇÃO INTEGRAL

Neste artigo, as contribuições de aportes pós-estruturais e pós-fundacionais são mobilizadas para sustentar a (im)possibilidade de uma Educação Integral (EI). De uma perspectiva discursiva de interpretação dos fenômenos sociais, a EI é entendida como um nome que se hegemoniza, passando a representar uma promessa de plenitude-por-vir humana e social. O nome Educação Integral é assumido, a partir da Teoria do Discurso de Ernesto Laclau, como um significante saturado de significados em disputas incessantes para fixar uma identidade plena e idealizada. Um processo em que lógicas ou narrativas fantasmáticas prometem a ‘salvação’ humana e uma plenitude-por-vir. Como material empírico, foram selecionadas quatro experiências de EI: Centro Educacional Carneiro Ribeiro (CECR), Centro Integrado de Educação Pública (CIEP), Centro de Atenção Integral à Criança (CAIC) e o Programa Mais Educação (PME), assumidas como políticas curriculares, a partir das quais são interpretados sentidos dessas lógicas articulados e negociados nos textos políticos.

Writing Philosophy from the Periphery: Lixing as Foundational Empty Signifier in Tang Junyi\u2019s Cultural Consciousness and Moral Reason

This article adopts Ernesto Laclau’s notion of empty signifier to discuss Tang Junyi’s uses of the concept of lixing (‘reason’ or ‘rationality’) in his seminal work Cultural Consciousness and Moral Reason (文化意識與道德理性; 1958). My dual goal, in doing so, is to bring to light the relations of power constitutive of the text’s discourse on lixing and relate them to the problematic of writing philosophy from the periphery. I argue that in this work, lixing’s dual referents—as a translation of ‘reason’ and as denoting a Neo-Confucian faculty to intuit moral truths—allow Tang to inscribe himself in a philosophical field designed to exclude non-Western philosophies, while at the same time enabling him to symbolically relegate Euro-American philosophy to a peripheral position by filling in the notion of lixing with a content that legitimizes his own agenda. Tang could thus authorize his Confucian metaphysics by presenting it as the true content of lixing, understood not only as a universal faculty enabling humanity’s access to all that is universal, but also as a condition sine qua non of for one’s inclusion in the philosophical game. By attempting to co-opt the empty signifier (lixing/reason) for his own purposes, I argue Tang employs one of two possible strategies that can be adopted by those situated at the periphery in order to oppose the hegemon; one that leaves the structure of power relations intact but working in favor of the periphery.

Populist Mediation of the Pandemic

Abstract The potential impact of right-wing populist media on society is a matter of growing importance. This paper examines the discourse of the three Danish right-wing populist media Den Korte Avis, NewsSpeek and 24Nyt during the corona crisis in 2020. Using the post-structuralist theoretical framework and discursive approach to populism of Ernesto Laclau, it finds that despite some differences, all three of them articulate Muslim immigrants as a particular problem demanding particular attention in the corona crisis; they accuse the so-called mainstream media of lying or keeping secrets about the crisis, thereby positioning themselves as mediums of the truth; and they accuse the international institutions of lying and utilizing the corona crisis for their own globalist aims.

The Political and the Epistemic in the Twentieth Century: Historical Perspectives

Historical studies on the relationship between knowledge and politics have mostly focused on the narrower interplay between scientific knowledge and political institutions: the role of experts and advisors in policy making or the impact of the modern state on scientific institutions, theories, practices, and projects. Borrowing from Foucauldian discourse analysis, others have departed from the constitutive interrelationship between knowledge and power in order to reconstruct the epistemic regimes of governmentality. Taking up recent accounts in political theory, such as those by Jacques Rancière, Ernesto Laclau, and Chantal Mouffe, we argue for an antifoundationalist understanding of both the political and the epistemic beyond institutionalized frameworks. The distinction between science, knowledge, and the realm of the political is thus not imbued with a clear-cut dividing line; instead, the relationship is characterized by ongoing and contested boundary work performed by various actors with different resources, strategies, intentions, and interests. The historically shifting scope of the political relies on contested fields and foundations of knowledge, and vice versa. For a more thorough understanding of the political aspects of knowledge production and circulation we therefore suggest considering the nonfoundational and agonistic conditions in which knowledge emerges in an ever-changing power play of forms and social contexts.

Freud, Lacan e Laclau: o entroncamento ardiloso entre discurso, pulsão e gozo

A concepção lacaniana de sujeito cindido e descentrado e suas consequências, implicada à linguagem e ao discurso, subverteu radicalmente significativa parte do campo de estudos concernentes à discursividade. Podemos inscrever a destacada Teoria do Discurso de Ernesto Laclau como um aprofundamento dessa subversão lacaniana, incorporada a uma abrangente investigação dos processos sociopolíticos e identitários. No presente artigo, promovemos uma analítica das implicações teóricas do dispositivo psicanalítico presentes em sua Teoria do Discurso a partir de três direções: (A) os pressupostos de ‘irredutibilidade do sentido’ e a ‘lógica do significante’ como ponto de partida; (B) e a implicação da categoria ‘sujeito cindido e descentrado’ impostos a fundamentação do campo do discurso ‘para além das áreas da fala ou da escrita’; (C) O terceiro eixo, o mais explorado, articulamos a relação teórica entre ‘discurso, campo pulsional e o gozo (la juissance)’, repensado por Laclau nos limites e consequências do político. Por fim, propomos algumas formalizações como forma de demonstrar o jogo teórico explicitado.

Populismin väkevöityminen

Artikkelissa tarkastellaan populismin ideologista väkevöitymistä populistisen radikaalioikeiston herättämänä kysymyksenä. Ernesto Laclaun käsittein kuvataan aluksi argumentaatioltaan heikoksi mainitun populistisen retoriikan liikettä muodostavaa voimaa. Laclaun kuvaamat ”tyhjät” ja ”kelluvat” merkitsijät voivat panostua myös ideologisesti liikkeen luonnetta muuttavalla tavalla. Populismin ytimeltään heikko ideologisuus altistaa uusiin ideologisiin linkityksiin ja panosten väkevöitymiseen sen omassa retoriikassa. Siten ideologiaa ei ymmärretä vain populismia jälkikäteen vahvistavaksi aatteeksi, vaan sen merkitsijöitä muuttavaksi dynaamiseksi mahdollisuudeksi. ”Tyhjän merkitsijän” käsitteen kautta Laclaun kuvaama populismin retoriikka kytkeytyy artikkelissa Slavoj Žižekin analyysiin ideologisesta fantasiasta suurten kertomusten jälkeen – ideologioihin ei enää entiseen tapaan uskota, mutta niiden virittäminä toimitaan ”kyynisesti" arjen käytännöissä. Ristiriitojen ylittämiseen tarvittava fantasialisä liittyy myös Laclaun ajatukseen yhteiskunnallisesta täyteyskuvitelmasta, jonka mahdottomuus antaa lisää voimaa populistiselle kahtiajaolle. Poliittisten vaatimusten ja täyteyskuvitelmien estyminen tuottaa helposti negatiivisten tyhjien merkitsijöiden paikkoja, sijaisuhreja eli syntipukkeja. Tätä ilmiötä kuvataan lähinnä René Girardin käsittein. Edellä kuvatulla käsitteistöllä tarkastellaan yhtä Jussi Halla-ahon varhaista blogikirjoitusta populistista me–muut jakoa hyödyntävänä kulttuuri-ideologisena tekstinä, jossa nativistinen fantasia antaa ideologisen ponnen muodoltaan rationaaliselle diskurssille. Tästä päädytään lyhyeen loppupohdintaan ”kansan” käsitteen ideologisoitumisesta ja tasa-arvon käyttötavoista oikeistopopulismissa.

Populism and health policy: three international case studies of right-wing populist policy frames.

Over the past decade, some of the world's most stable parliamentary democracies have witnessed a revival in right-wing populist political parties, movements and leaders. Although there is a growing body of theoretical and empirical literature documenting the rise of populism, there has been very little exploration of the implications for health policy of this important political development. In this article, we draw from three illustrative international cases, originating from the USA, the UK and Italy, to explore the ways in which right-wing populism influences health policy: the election of President Trump in the United States (and subsequent healthcare reforms), the United Kingdom's vote to withdraw from the European Union (Brexit), and how this has played out in the context of the UK National Health Service, and the rise of a politically aligned anti-vaccination movement in Italy. Drawing on the work of the influential socio-political theorist Ernesto Laclau, we interpret populism as a performative political act, predicated on drawing logics of equivalence (and difference) between different actors. We use this theoretical framing to explore the ways in which the recent upsurge in right-wing populism creates a specific set of barriers and challenges for access to healthcare and the health of populations.

Antagonismos discursivos nas hashtags #marqueteirosdojair e #bolsolão no Twitter nas eleições de 2018 no Brasil: contribuições da análise de redes sociais à sociologia digital

Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar a formação de antagonismos discursivos nas hashtags #bolsolão e #marqueteirosdojair, no contexto polarizado das Eleições de 2018 no Brasil. Em contribuição aos desafios teóricometodológicos da Sociologia Digital, partimos de uma abordagem interdisciplinar, articulando a Teoria do Discurso de Ernesto Laclau e Chantal Mouffe à Análise de Redes Sociais na internet. A partir disso, coletamos um total de 26.548 tweets da API do Twitter através do software NodeXL Pro. Assim, investigamos as duas hashtags selecionadas através de uma análise de contingência, conforme as métricas da modularidade e do grau de intermediação. Desse modo, verificamos quais os sentidos encadeados na formação das duas hashtags, descrevendo como estão articulados segundo as lógicas de equivalência e de diferença. Concluímos que a nossa proposta teórico-metodológica permite observar a polarização política como um fenômeno dinâmico, contingente e contraditório no social, associado à emergência de antagonismos discursivos.

Anti-populismo en la Argentina del siglo XXI o cuando el odio se vuelve un factor político estructurante

Las autoras del artículo presentan una interpretación sobre los usos del odio en la vida política de la Argentina reciente. Específicamente apuntan a desentrañar en qué forma el odio funciona como factor estructurante del anti-populismo, a partir de la experiencia de la Alianza Cambiemos en el gobierno entre 2015 y 2019. La estrategia argumentativa avanza a partir de indicios −siguiendo la propuesta del paradigma indicial− que se toman de fragmentos de tres piezas discursivas de amplia repercusión pública. Y se utilizan herramientas teóricas ofrecidas por el psicoanálisis (tanto freudiano como lacaniano) así como por la propuesta de análisis del discurso de Laclau y Mouffe.

… Because the homeland cannot be in opposition: analysing the discourses of Fidesz and Law and Justice (PiS) from opposition to power

ABSTRACT Drawing on Ernesto Laclau’s theory of discourse, hegemony, and populism, this paper analyses the development of the discourses of Fidesz in Hungary and Law and Justice (PiS) in Poland from opposition to power with a focus on how authoritarianism is articulated, especially in relation to populism. The post-foundational discourse analysis finds that populism takes on an authoritarian expression only in certain discursive combinations, mostly with nationalism, while authoritarianism follows a range of different logics (populist and non-populist alike), including nationalism and social welfarism without populism (PiS) or what Laclau refers to as institutionalism (Fidesz).

Populismin muoto, diskursiivisuus ja retoriikka

Tässä artikkelissa annan näkökulman politiikan ja populismin tutkimiseen merkityskamppailuna. Populismiin liittyvät hegemoniakamppailut, vallalla olevien jakolinjojen haastaminen ja uudelleen määrittely. Kehittämäni retorisperformatiivisen diskurssiteorian ja soinilaisen perussuomalaisuuden analyysin avulla näytän, kuinka populismi on erityinen merkityksenannon logiikka tai muoto, joka tuottaa tunteikasta vastakkainasettelua ja ”meitä”. Tästä laclaulaisesta näkökulmasta populismilla ei ole kiinteää sisältöä mutta sillä on muoto. Artikkeli tulkitsee ristiriitaisiakin ilmiöitä soinilais-perussuomalaisessa retoriikassa ja esittelee populismintutkimukselle hyödylliset peruskäsitteet.

Populism in Greece? Right, Left, and Laclau’s “Jacobinism” in the Years of the Goudi Coup, 1908–1910

Populism in Greece? Right, Left, and Laclau’s “Jacobinism” in the Years of the Goudi Coup, 1908–1910

Introduction: New Reflections on Ernesto Laclau's Theory of Populism

Ernesto Laclau's theory of populism has become hugely influential in the study of populism and is now considered one of the key references in the academic literature. Beyond academia, his work has been taking up by political activists in Latin America and Southern Europe in particular. The four articles collected in this symposium critically examine Laclau's theory. Among other things, the articles analyze the formalism in his work, the relationship between populism and hegemony, the distinction between left and right wing populism, the relationship between populism and nationalism, and the role of affect and the body.

Populism Is not Hegemony: Towards a Re-Gramscianization of Ernesto Laclau

This paper critically explores the notions of populism and hegemony in Ernesto Laclau. Following the publication of On Populist Reason, the conceptual proximity between populism and hegemony hampers their respective explanatory and political purchase. I offer a fresh interpretation that clearly distinguishes them by reformulating the conceptions of time and space in Laclau. He problematically conceives time and space in the singular and antinomically. I propose to go back to Gramsci to pluralize the way in which they are conceptualized. The analytical and strategic upshot is that populism does not necessarily imply hegemony, and vice versa.

Education is society … and there is no society: The ontological turn of education

Recent work in education research and policy studies has been critical of the view that sees education as a fix for social problems. This perspective invites a reconsideration of the relationship between education and society that breaks from the long held instrumental assumptions informing most education theory and policy, wherein education is a means to a fully reconciled society. Drawing on Ernesto Laclau’s argument for the impossibility of society, this article considers the ontology of education in light of society’s impossibility. Referring to previous work on rhetorics and tropes in education policy and theory, we discuss how ‘ontological rhetorics’ in the discourse of education create the objects on and through which it operates. By focusing on the ontology of education, we are able to theorize education as more than and different from its role as a means to an end. Expanding the way Laclau and Mouffe use Althusser’s notion of overdetermination, we speak of education as beyond and excessive to the demands of the social, making education a tropological register of the social through which we continually encounter the impossibility of society. Rather than being effective means to current forms of political power, education contributes to the production of discursive resources necessary for the construction of any political entity, for configurations of the political understood as the ontological process of creating the frameworks of social life.

Narrativer i Islamisk Stats propagandamagasin, Rumiyah – en digital tilgang til diskursanalyse

AbstractThis article uses messages communicated through the Islamic State’s propaganda magazine, Rumiyah, to explore the applicability of text mining methods in discourse analysis. The repertoire of narratives used in Rumiyah is examined through the theoretical framework of Narrative Criminology in combination with Discourse Theory, as presented by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. Techniques and methods from the field of digital text mining are also applied. The current article therefore has two sections: a quantitatively-deduced discourse analysis and a qualitatively-deduced discourse analysis.