Our Action members participated in the 5th Helsinki Conference on Emotions, Populism, and Polarisation, HEPP5, from 5 to 7 March 2025, with three panels and 10 presentations! This year, HEPP focused on the relationship between populism, polarisation, and emotions and how polarisation challenges social contracts as societal consensuses and sources of solidarity.
Matthias Revers chaired the first panel by our Action, “Divisive Meanings and Emotions: Cultural Sociological Perspectives on Political Polarisation,” and presented their paper with María Luengo Cruz titled “Hybrid Media and the Polarization of Civil Society: Elite Polarization Beyond Political Institutions.” Drawing on civil sphere theory and theories of field transformation, they analyzed hybrid media as key polarizing agents; examples include partisan news apps such as MAGA 2024 and Proud Democrat. Werner Binder presented the paper “Affect and Meaning. A Cultural Sociological Perspective on Polarization,” offering a systematic reconstruction of ideological and affective polarization from a cultural sociological perspective. Milica Resanović’s presentation, “Gender sensitive language as a polarizing issue in Serbia,” employed a cultural-sociological approach to examine the polarisation surrounding the use of gender-sensitive language in Serbia. Last, in the panel, Polina Zavershinskaia presented her paper “Collective Past for Polarization? Framing the Russian Invasion of Ukraine with Mnemonic Narratives in Germany and Italy,” examining the mnemonic narratives used by the German and Italian backlash to frame the Russian invasion of Ukraine, revealing how they influenced frontlash/backlash polarization.
The second panel, “Comparative Methodologies in the Study of Polarization,” chaired by Emre Erdoğan, started with the presentation of Cláudia Álvares, on their joint research with Bernadette Nadya Jaworsky, entitled “Polarization as Discursive Formation: Comparative Methodologies Across Disciplinary Frameworks.” Their work is based on examining methodologies across sociology, psychology, and media studies to explore polarization, highlighting intersections and divergences. Following, Shahira S. Fahmy and Rocío Zamora presented “Medina Lenses of Division: Mapping Methodologies for Visual Political Polarization in Digital Narratives,” a paper aimed at offering a critical review of the various methods that have been used in this specific field based on a representative sample of studies addressing visual political polarization in digital contexts. The last presentation of the panel was by Gonzalo Velasco Arias, entitled “The Contribution of Political Epistemology to Polarization Research”, aiming to highlight how philosophical analysis, particularly political epistemology, enriches interdisciplinary approaches to polarization.
Our members’ last panel was titled “Major Issues in the Study of Polarization: Popular Culture, Gender, and Affect,” chaired by Polina Zavershinskaia. In this session, Ateş Altınordu presented his paper “Popular Culture and Polarization: Social Cleavages and Postsecular Dreams in Cranberry Sorbet and Red Buds,” arguing that the television series’ popular resonance stems as much from their depiction of post-secular dreams as it does from their dramatization of a major social cleavage. After that, Hande Eslen-Ziya discussed how the state employs policy, rhetoric, and neglect to reassert traditional gender hierarchies while normalizing violence as a mechanism of social and political control with her paper “Coercive Regimentation in New Turkey: Patriarchy, Violence, and State-Sanctioned Power.” Lastly, Kevin McDonald presented “The UK Riots of Summer 2024 – The Dynamics of Emotional Engagement,” highlighting hybrid affect and embodied imaginaries increasingly evident in social and political polarisation, and suggesting directions to respond.
