Education and populism: constructing a shared ontology through Laclau and Lacan

Abstract This article explores how, methodologically, to study the relationship between education and populism without limiting one to a thematic appendix of the other. Political science tends to view education as a tool of populism, while educational theory tends to reduce education to a mechanism for resistance against populism. This binary framing obscures the potential for a shared ontology with an instrumental understanding of the relation between education and populism which is, itself, articulated in reductive terms. Instead of treating populism as an external force shaping education, this article examines its underlying articulatory conditions, stripping away essentialist assumptions. It argues that populism and education do not stand in a predetermined relationship that reduces one to the antidote or tool of the other, but are linked through a common ontology with shared conditions of articulation. By progressively refining key concepts and connotations often brought up in research on education’s relationship to populism, the article constructs a shared ontology for them. This analysis draws on the work of Laclau and Mouffe, as well as Lacanian psychoanalysis, situating the discussion within a broader theoretical framework.