Public sociology and populism

Public sociology needs to resist a governmentality which understands individuals as objects, and needs to return to people’s subjectivity: perceptions, understandings, and demands. Our modern societies increasingly display forms of rebellion against professionalized, expert, or technocratic knowledge and intellectual-scientific wisdom. This rebellion often takes the form of ‘populism’. This chapter will make a case for a specific type of populist sociology, in contrast to the currently prevalent anti-populist sociology. It will first start from what is the currently most diffused understanding of populism. Second, it will critically discuss the origin of contemporary understandings of populism. Third, the chapter will discuss the call for a ‘populist sociology’. Fourth, turning outwards to society, critical and emancipatory forms of leftwing populism are discussed. Fifth, a case is made for a ‘democratic populism’ or ‘civic populism’, which can be understood as the basis for one form of intending a ‘public sociology’.