Research School FUDEM

The research school The Future of Democracy: Cultural Analyses of Illiberal Populism in Times of Crises (FUDEM) is a multi-disciplinary environment where the collective of junior and senior researchers in cultural studies, ethnology, gender studies, and musicology are doing research on the variety of cultural forms in which illiberal populism reveals itself in times of crises

Illiberal populism is a symptom of multiple crises which put the future of liberal democracy at stake. It consists of disparate, yet, overlapping cultural practices, aesthetics, and discursive struggles – from anti-gender and anti-migration to climate change denial and anti-vaccination - which oppose progressive egalitarian mobilization including antiracism, gender equality and climate politics labeling them as elitist and detached from the interests of “common people”.

Illiberal discourses can be understood as antagonistic and contradictory - they stick together seemingly irreconcilable values, such as secular individualism and religious collectivism; trust in science and belief in conspiracy theories; simultaneous appeal to feelings and rationality through “cherry picking” methodology and a strong confirmation bias. They are popular among authoritarian populist leaders who use these discourses to make a populist appeal to “people” to either raise the support among voters or to cement anti-egalitarian violent politics. Using a rich arsenal of theories and methods in humanities, researchers in the FUDEM study cultural, aesthetical, and discursive embodiments of illiberal populism.

FUDEM is a group of 11 senior researchers and 10 PhD students located at six Swedish universities - Linnaeus University, Linköping University, Lund University, Södertörn University, University of Gothenburg and Uppsala University. FUDEM is financially supported by the Swedish Research Council (VR Grant 2022-06360, 2023-2026).