Left politics and popular culture in Britain
From left-wing populism to ‘popular leftism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6353038 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jonathan Dean (0000-0002-1028-0566) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 3-17 |
| Publication date | 2023-02-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0032-3268 • E-ISSN: 1467-9256 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0263395720960661 |
| OpenAlex | W3099996120 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 14 |
| References cited | 31 |
This article analyses the cultural traction and media visibility yielded by left-wing ideas and people during Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure as British Labour Party leader (2015–2019), while also offering some more general reflections on the relationship between left politics and popular culture. I begin by noting that the cultural and media aspects of Corbynism have largely been neglected in the scholarly literature. I then go on to caution against the temptation of subsuming the cultural aspects of Corbyn-era left politics under the label of ‘left-wing populism’. Instead, I defend a conception of ‘popular leftism’ as distinct from ‘left-wing populism’, via an engagement with Stuart Hall’s classic essay ‘Notes on Deconstructing the Popular’, as well as Sarah Banet-Wesier’s recent work on popular feminism. The second half of the article maps key features of ‘popular leftism’ as a distinct cultural/political formation that has emerged ‘in and against’ neoliberalism. In particular, it focuses on media visibility, affective tenor, and tactical and intellectual dynamics. While popular leftism’s entanglement with neoliberalism has proved problematic for its transformative capacity, I nonetheless conclude that its emergence is testament to the importance of popular cultural production and consumption in shaping recent iterations of left politics in Britain
Aesthetics · Art · Feminism · Left-wing politics · Media studies · Neoliberalism (international relations · New Left · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Popular culture · Populism · Sociology · Temptation · Anthropology · Cultural Studies · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Philosophy · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Populism, Right-Wing Movements
Rage Against the Elite
Using Celebrity to Advance Equality
Sport in a Populist Age
Too left-wing or not populist enough? Using Laclau and Mouffe to rethink Corbynism and future left strategy in the UK
To build a new Jezrusalem
Pop-socialism
Mobilising for organising
Purging the neoliberal poison? Marina Diamandis and the cultural grammar of popular left politics
Understanding and evaluating populist strategy
Megaprojects in austerity times
Mèmes et politique
Cultural politics and affective mobilisations
Discourse theory and the turn to practice
From solidarity to self-promotion? Neoliberalism and left politics in the age of the social media influencer
In the Ruins of Neoliberalism
The Rise of Neoliberal Feminism
A party within a party posing as a movement? Momentum as a movement faction
The Longest Suicide Vote in History’
Jeremy Corbyn confounds his critics
In Defence of British Politics
Corbyn’s labour party
Contending the crisis
Deconstructing Militant Manhood
What's Queer about Political Science
British satire, everyday politics
The British Labour Party’s leadership election of 2015
Populism as an intra-party phenomenon
Politicising fandom
Populism as a Spectre of Democracy
Corbynism
This Conjuncture
Left-wing populism in the European periphery
The Iron Cage of Enterprise or the Restoration of Class Power? Approaches to Understanding Neoliberalism
Sorted for Memes and Gifs
The (Anti-)Politics of the General Election
Jez, We Can!’ Labour’s Campaign
Digital Campaigning
Empowered
The Populist Zeitgeist
Postcapitalism
| Citations per year | 2.8 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |