Nation State, The Rise of Popul(ar)ism, and Curricula of Global Citizenship

Citation

Swanson DM, Guion Akdağ E & Gamal M (2018) Nation State, The Rise of Popul(ar)ism, and Curricula of Global Citizenship. American Educational Research Association: The dreams, possibilities, and necessity of Public Education Conference, New York, 13.04.2018-17.04.2018. https://www.aera.net/

Abstract
The ascendancy of nationalist popul(ar)ism as evidenced by Brexit, the U.S. presidency of Donald Trump and the rise of far right charismatic leaders across Europe have heralded a profound alteration in the ways in which the relationship between the “ people” and the “nation” can be understood. Accordingly, the “people” is deployed in populist discourses as a “rhetorical strategy of social reference” to a “pure”, virtuous and marginalized part of the “patriotic body politic”(Bhabha, 1994, p.145) struggling “ to be represented in [this] unruly ‘time’”(Bhabha, 1994, p. 147). This notion of the people harbours with it a conception of the “elites” who are “corrupt or… morally inferior” (Muller, 2014, p.485). Concomitantly, this discourse mobilises a conception of the nation as failing, harkening back to a romantic and nostalgic past. Accordingly, the nation is framed as an entity besieged by refugees, asylum seekers and “illegal immigrants”. This has led to a number of exclusionary policies, pronouncements and proposals aimed at protecting and ‘taking back control’ of the nation (Fassin, 2011; Bhatia, 2015; Vaughan-Williams, 2008).