Public lecture: Fear, loss and the potential for progressive nostalgia: challenging right-wing populism
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
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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 -
Jessica Lafrance-Hwang
Ingenium -
Mark Watson
Deputy Head of Industrial Heritage, Historic Environment Scotland -
Cathy Beausoleil
Responsable logístico, 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 -
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 -
Susan Ross
Associate professor, Carleton University -
Ariane Néron Lapointe
Député de Jonquière -
Mikaela Gallinger
Parks Canada -
Nevena Tatovic
PhD Candidate, University of Évora -
Seana Irvine
PhD Student, Trent University -
Allen Dieterich-Ward
Professor of History, Shippensburg University -
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
Intern | 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 -
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 -
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 -
58 other(s)