This interdisciplinary volume offers new insights into the connections between populism and performance. As a driving force of the contemporary left, the populist logic offers a way for progressive politics to radicalize actions against the elite, fostering greater democratization of societies at a time of socio-political and environmental crisis. Exploring the populist roots of a number of performances, the contributors to this study analyze the potentials and limits of the new forms of left populism for more democratic ways of living together.

Combining performance studies and political theory, Performing Left Populism demonstrates how various performance practices give rise to populism. It shows how both civic performances (including grassroots, civil movements, political speeches, state policies and media campaigns) and artistic performances (such as theatre, dance, music and artistic activism) contribute to these processes. By these means, the book examines the processes of constructing ‘a people’ through both the real/civic and imaginary/artistic perspectives.

Offering scholars and practitioners a thought-provoking analysis of the ways in which performance can be viewed politically, as a social practice capable of mobilizing alternative ways of living and invigorating democracy, this study expands the debate about left populism towards strategies of mobilization, collectivism and democratic politics.

Performing Left Populism will ignite lively debates concerning the role performance studies can play in political science scholarship and media analysis of current affairs. Situating performance—in the broadest sense of the word—as a vital practice of civic engagement undergoing a messy yet vibrant revival in reaction against the technocratic, neoliberal orthodoxy which has dominated western public discourse for over four decades, is its most significant contribution to cross-disciplinary political scholarship. -- Joseph Dunne-Howie, Rose Bruford College, UK * PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art *

Goran Petrovic Lotina is Research Fellow at the University of Warwick, UK, and Lecturer at Sciences Po: The Paris Institute of Political Studies, France.

Théo Aiolfi is a Marie Curie Cofund EUTOPIA Science and Innovation Fellow at CY Cergy Paris University, France.