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Public lecture: Fear, loss and the potential for progressive nostalgia: challenging right-wing populism

My Session Status

What:
Keynote with simultaneous translation / Conférence avec traduction simultanée
When:
5:30 PM, Wednesday 31 Aug 2022 (1 hour 30 minutes)

In this lecture, I would like to talk about deindustrialised communities, heritage and memory in the context of right-wing populism. Drawing on studies of memory and heritage, I argue that right-wing populists have cornered the market on talking about the past of deindustrialised communities. They have successfully misrepresented this rich and complex history to fuel rage, resentment, fear and reactionary nostalgia. Indeed, ‘the past’, and in particular the industrial and working-class past, has been a feature of recent right-wing populist rhetoric around the world. Recent work in heritage studies has identified ‘the past’, particularly as feelings of ‘nostalgia’, as being particularly useful in mobilising affect and emotion.

I would like to draw on this work to challenge the rather journalistic assumption that working-class communities decimated by deindustrialisation are now the natural allies of right-wing populists. There are rich veins of heritage and memory to mine in these communities that can enliven progressive repertoires of emotion. Rather than just despair and rage, there is also an emotional vocabulary of progressive nostalgia that can be mobilised to move people to act in concert for positive ends. By building on emotional commitments to histories of strong communities, collective action, and trade union activism, ‘the past’ can be drawn on to give life to a progressive nostalgia.

Who's Attending

Prof. Claudine Déom
Associate Professor
University of Montreal
Florence Graezer Bideau
Senior Scientist and Lecturer, PhD
EPFL
Myriam Joannette
Chaire de recherche du Canada en patirmoine urbain
Abdoulaye Gaye
http://crh.ehess.fr/index.php?5439
Ministère de la Culture Sénégal / Direction du Patrimoine Culturel
Jacqueline Charlier - Rossbach
Proviseure Cité Scolaire Moselle
Retraitée Education Nationale FRANCE
Mark Watson
Deputy Head of Industrial Heritage
Historic Environment Scotland
Cathy Beausoleil
Logistics Manager
UQAM
Beatriz Takahashi
PhD student in Architecture
CITCEM - Transdisciplinary Research Centre «Culture, Space and Memory»
Èlia Casals Alsina
PhD student
Universitat de Lleida [University of Lleida]. Fac.: Geography and Sociology. Research program: Territory, heritage and culture
carole lévesque
École de design, UQAM
Prof. Stefan Berger
Director
Ruhr University Bochum
Mário Bruno Pastor
PhD Candidate / Researcher
APPI / TICCIH - UCP - CITAR - FCT
Stephan Green
Chercheur Indépendant (Royaume Uni)
Independent Researcher (UK)
Francisco Rivera
Research Associate
Instituto de Investigaciones Arqueológicas y Museo, Universidad Católica del Norte
Konstantinos Bitzanis
CEO
Technopolis City of Athens
Joeri Januarius
Director
Center for Industrial Heritage ETWIE
Prof. Susan Ross
Associate professor
Carleton University
Ariane Néron Lapointe
Député de Jonquière
Nevena Tatovic
PhD Candidate
University of Évora
Seana Irvine
PhD Student
Trent University
Allen Dieterich-Ward
Professor of History
Shippensburg University
Dr Milan Balaban
Scientific Researcher - Historian
Tomas Bata University in Zlin
Amy Federman
Six Degree Singers
Monika Schott
Deakin University Australia
Henry Kuningas
Tallinn Urban Planning Department; Estonian Academy of Arts
Brooke Batterson
Graduate Student, Industrial Heritage & Archaeology
Michigan Technological University
Ana Bergholz
PhD Student Heritage Studies
BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg
Hushui Deng
post-doctoral researcher
EPFL
Seana Irvine
PhD Student
Trent University
Mirna Ashraf Ali
Urban Heritage Planner at UNESCO, World Heritage Cities Programme | Urban Researcher and Architect
UNESCO| World Heritage Centre - Brandenburg University of Technology-Cottbus
Rossella Maspoli
Associate Professor
Politecnico di Torino, Department of Architecture and Design DAD
Jan Kubanek
ERA Architectes
Anne Hakkinen
Postdoctoral research fellow
University of Jyväskylä, Department of History and Ethnology
Dr Chao-Shiang Li
Assistant Professor
Department of Interior Design, China University of Technology, Taiwan
Èlia Casals Alsina
PhD student
Universitat de Lleida [University of Lleida]. Fac.: Geography and Sociology. Research program: Territory, heritage and culture
Marie-Claude Lemelin
Service de l'urbanisme et de la mobilité
Prof. Laurajane Smith
Professor and Head of the Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies
Australian National University
Maria Florou
Head of the Industrial Gas Museum
Technopolis City of Athens
Dominique Chartrand
Société québécoise des infrastructures
Heidi Pinkepank
Academic
Brandenburg Technical University Cottbus / Institute for New Industrial Culture INIK
Anne Dalmasso
Professeur d'histoire contemporaine
Université grenoble Alpes LARHRA
Rui Carvalho
Architect Phd Student in Heritage Rehabilitation
Seville University
Jorge Magaz-Molina
PhD candidate
University of Alcala. School of Architecture

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