Polarised Narratives and (Un)Defined Identities
Speakers
Danielle Araújo (CES-UC)
Júlia Garraio (CES-UC)
Sofia José Santos (CES-UC)
Moderator:
Cristiano Gianolla (CES-UC)
XII Congresso Português de Sociologia
4th April 2023
Convento de São Francisco, Coimbra
Abstract
Polarised narratives constitute socio-political identities in a dynamic that is all the more defined the more contingent issues are rooted in founding ideas generated by ideologies, mythologies and social exclusions. The multiplication of forms of communication and interaction facilitates the possibility of shaping and appropriating the narratives of contingency, whether at the central or at the diffuse level of the architectures of sociopolitical power. However, the aggregative force in political representation - typical of populism - emerges from the ambiguous interconnection between contingency and founding ideas in a radical discursive centralisation. For this and other reasons, understanding the undefined dynamics of narratives and sociopolitical identification allows us to analyse polarisation in contemporary societies.
