The polysemy of an empty signifier
The various uses of Ernesto Laclau’s puzzling concept
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21692136 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Thomás Zicman De Barros (0000-0003-1657-6939, Sciences Po, Center for Political Research (CEVIPOF), CNRS, Paris, France, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 32-50 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Political Ideologies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1356-9317 • E-ISSN: 1469-9613 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13569317.2023.2196513 |
| OpenAlex | W4361205284 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
The concept of empty signifier is possibly the most prominent among those developed by Ernesto Laclau. However, despite its success among discourse theorists, this notion remains puzzling. It has been used in various contexts and different configurations, and has become polysemic. My goal is to attempt to clarify this concept. To do so, my study is divided into two parts. First, I go back to the psychoanalytic concepts that seem to have informed Laclau’s earlier formulations on the empty signifier. Second, I revisit Laclau’s work to highlight five different uses he made of the notion of empty signifier. In different contexts in Laclau’s work, the empty signifier named (1) a symbol of the pure being of the symbolic system; (2) a particular demand that represents all other particular political struggles; (3) a ‘negative’ symbol that names an antagonistic other; (4) a symbol whose content is problematically poor; and (5) a symbol pointing to an open identity. Whereas I conclude that it is not possible to produce one simple definition of empty signifier, I argue that we should not reject the concept, but rather use it to grasp the complexity of processes of identification
Aesthetics · Epistemology · Identity (music) · Ideology · Linguistics · Politics · Polysemy · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Simple (philosophy) · Sociology · Symbol (formal) · The Symbolic · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Education, Politics, and Culture Studies · Law · Philosophy · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Psychology
Trauma and repression
Welfare and ethnic boundary deactivation in left-wing nationalist mobilization
Floating nationality
Resonance and the Moral Backgrounds of Far‐Right Politics in Chile
Populist performances and the normalisation of the far right
Conceptualizing transformative change for global environmental governance
Mission [im]possible
What we talk about when we talk about ‘the elite’ in populism studies
From sovereignty to créolisation
The people versus the grandees
The transgressive aesthetics of populism
Making Sense of Nationality
Fear and hope
| Unique citing works | 13 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 6,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 11 |