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Counter-populist performances of (in)security: Feminist resistance in the face of right-wing populism in Poland

Kurylo, B; (2021) Counter-populist performances of (in)security: Feminist resistance in the face of right-wing populism in Poland. Review of International Studies 10.1017/S0260210521000620. (In press). Green open access

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Abstract

IR scholarship has recently seen a burgeoning interest in the right-wing populist politics of security, showing that it tends to align with the international ultraconservative mobilisation against 'gender ideology'. In contrast, this article investigates how local feminist actors can resist right-wing populist constructions of (in)security by introducing counter-populist discourses and aesthetics of security. I analyse the case of Poland, which presents two competing populist performances of (in)security: the Independence March organised by right-wing groups on Poland's Independence Day and the Women's Strike protests against the near-total ban on abortion. The article draws on Judith Butler's theory of the performative politics of public assembly, which elucidates how the political subject of 'the people' can emerge as bodies come together to make security demands through both verbal and non-verbal acts. I argue that the feminist movement used the vehicle of populist performance to subvert the exclusionary constructions of (in)security by right-wing populists. In the process, it introduced a different conception of security in the struggle for a 'livable life'. The study expands the understanding of the relationship between populism, security and feminism in IR by exploring how the populist politics of security is differently enacted by everyday agents in local contexts.

Type: Article
Title: Counter-populist performances of (in)security: Feminist resistance in the face of right-wing populism in Poland
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1017/S0260210521000620
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210521000620
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > SSEES
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10141985
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