UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Protesting Populist Knowledge Practices: Collective Effervescence at the March for Science London

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. Green open access

[thumbnail of stephens-et-al-2021-protesting-populist-knowledge-practices-collective-effervescence-at-the-march-for-science-london.pdf]
Preview
Text
stephens-et-al-2021-protesting-populist-knowledge-practices-collective-effervescence-at-the-march-for-science-london.pdf - Published Version

Download (148kB) | Preview

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
Downloads since deposit
4Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item