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Guest professor Carlo Ruzza on populist turn and its impact on EU and civil society

Professor Carlo Ruzza. Photo: Unknown.
Professor Carlo Ruzza, University of Trento.

The growing populist movements in many European countries affect not only the EU's institutional actors but also EU-based civil society organizations.

Professor Carlo Ruzza, a prominent scholar in political sociology based at the University of Trento, has been invited to our program as a guest researcher this autumn. His research is focused on civil society organizations in Brussels and on populist movements in Europe.

On the 24th of October, Professor Ruzza gave a talk at the Department of Political Science, LU, where he emphasized the implications of the growing populist movements in many European countries for the changing positions and strategies that the EU's institutional actors adopt.

Professor Carlo Ruzza has conducted text analysis of thousands of documents, including debate scripts at the European Parliament, papers, reports and speeches, published and held by the EU institiutional actors, as well as Brussels-based civil society organizations. His analyse shows in what ways the populist and anti-populist discourses could be distinguished, and how gradually the EU and civil society organizations has started to actively defend "European values" and rearticulate the importance of a more "social" Europe in reaction to the populist turn.

Professor Ruzza is about to launch a new research project, in which several universities in Europe will collaborate in analyzing the populist and anti-populist movements, which is likely to shape the major political scenes in Brussels as well as in many national contexts.