The populist hype

Examining one of the most hotly debated topics in contemporary politics, media and academia, the Research Handbook on Populism brings together a diverse range of academics from across the globe to provide a detailed and comprehensive overview of the developing field of populism research.


This prescient Research Handbook highlights the crucial need for conceptual reflexivity, theoretical awareness, methodological pluralism and historical alertness as guiding principles in populism research. Chapters showcase cutting-edge research methods, from surveys to ethnography and from discourse studies to psychoanalytic political theorisation. Enacting diverse sensibilities, they explore a wealth of topics, such as digital populism, anti-populism, feminism, colonialism, the politics of emotions, populist constitutionalism, party politics, social movements, and relevant artistic practices. Offering rigorous comparative perspectives and highlighting promising avenues for future research, this Research Handbook deftly illustrates the dynamism of populism research.



The Research Handbook on Populism will be an invaluable resource for students, academics and researchers working in political theory, comparative politics and political sociology as well as those involved in populism research from across the social sciences and humanities. Providing in-depth accounts of concrete phenomena and addressing emerging challenges at a global level, it will also be of interest to professionals in journalism and a variety of national and international organisations.