About

This series aims to create a platform for a multidisciplinary discussion on the formation of emotion narratives and their effects on political behaviour, with a focus on populism. While the success of populist phenomena is claimed to be largely attributed to their ability to mobilise the emotions of ‘common’ people, there is little debate about how legitimate these emotions are and how they contribute to shape political representation. This debate turns to the vibrant subject of the relationship between reason and emotion and the limits of both in society. The mobilising potential of emotions in populist discourses is often seen as alien to democratic practices, or a distorted and irrational version of political discourse. The ‘UNPOP’ event series will promote several discussions involving - and challenging - this premise.

The UNPOP project - UNpacking POPulism: Comparing the formation of emotion narratives and their effects on political behaviour, aims to explore how narratives of emotion allow a deeper analysis of the way populist phenomena constitute and influence political behaviour.
Thus, the series of events developed throughout the project will address several issues involving the recent growth of populism, focusing on the role of emotions - both those considered negative such as anger and fear, and those considered positive such as hope and love - in political behaviour.

UNPOP is coordinated by Cristiano Gianolla e Lisete Mónico and is based at the Centre for Social Studies and by  CINEICC - Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive and Behavioral Intervention of the University of Coimbra, and is funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (PTDC/CPO-CPO/3850/2020)