After the epistemological turn: A framework for studying populism as a knowledge phenomenon

Abstract

The recent epistemological turn in populism studies has produced many valuable insights pertaining to populist knowledge practices, conspiracy theories, information bubbles, and cognitive biases. However, various elements of populist epistemology are still studied separately, and there are no common theoretical assumptions that would arrange them into a comprehensive epistemic theory of populism. Thus, apart from presenting a preliminary mapping of recent changes in the field, the article proposes a basic theoretical framework for an epistemic approach to studying populism by conceptualising populism as a set of epistemic interventions: discursive and non-discursive practices that construe the people as a political subject and result in the emergence of a populist epistemic community. The article discusses how the latter concept may help to link discursive, performative, communicative, and cognitive elements of populism, along with describing key features of populist epistemic communities and indicating possible directions for future research on populist epistemology.