Populism poses a major challenge to society and academia. Movements such as the PVV (the Netherlands) and PEGIDA (Germany) do not fit neatly into existing paradigms, and they publish few programmatic texts. How should we understand populist movements? This project draws on social media data to analyse how key concepts are defined in populist ideology.

Specifically, the project, which is funded by a KNAW National Research Agenda Startimpuls grant, considers the role played by references to the Christian and Jewish religions and concepts such as ‘Judaeo-Christian’ and ‘Christian values’ in representations of the Netherlands. It also looks at how ‘Islam’ has assumed new political meaning in this framework. How is Muslim political engagement taking shape against the background of rising right-wing conservative populism? In doing so, the project contributes to the shaping and sharing of knowledge about religious-cultural polarisation, and helps to anticipate it.

See also:

Presentation of the project on YouTube