Stephens, Neil;
Vrikki, Photini;
Riesch, Hauke;
Martin, Olwenn;
(2022)
Protesting Populist Knowledge Practices: Collective Effervescence at the March for Science London.
Cultural Sociology
, 16
(2)
pp. 212-230.
10.1177/17499755211033556.
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Abstract
On 22 April 2017, 10,000 people joined the March for Science London, one of 600 events globally asserting the importance of science against post-truth. Here we report an online and on-the-ground observational study of the London event in its distinct, post-Brexit referendum context. We analyse the motives for marchers’ attendance, and their collective enactment of what science is and why and by what it is threatened. Drawing upon Interaction Ritual Theory and the concept of civic epistemology, we develop the notion of populist knowledge practices to capture the ‘other’ that marchers defined themselves against. We detail how this was performed, and how it articulated a particular vision for science–society relations in Britain. In closing, we argue that the March for Science is one in a chain of anti-populist activist events that retains collective effervescence while transcending specific framings.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Protesting Populist Knowledge Practices: Collective Effervescence at the March for Science London |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1177/17499755211033556 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/17499755211033556 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author(s) 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). |
| Keywords: | Activism, Brexit, civic epistemology, expertise, March for Science, observation, populism, protest |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Arts and Sciences (BASc) UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Dept of Information Studies |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10197282 |
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