Moreno Barreneche, S. (2023). The Social Semiotics of Populism

Interest in populism has been increasing since the start of the new millennium, particularly driven by major political events in 2016, such as the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom and the first presidential election of Donald Trump in the United States.However, the rise in scholarly and media interest in the topic has not resulted in greater conceptual and theoretical clarity regarding the term "populism" and its nature.Rather, it has multiplied the term's misuses and highlighted the persistent challenges inherent in reaching a general consensus on its definition (Moffitt, 2020;Mudde, 2017).In fact, besides the recognition of its social component, populism has been variously conceptualized as an ideology, a discourse, a performance, a cognitive frame, and a political strategy; while simultaneously being examined through diverse disciplinary lenses including political science, discursive perspectives, and media studies.It is against this backdrop that Sebastin Moreno Barreneche has taken up the above-mentioned challenge by providing an innovative and comprehensive study that approaches populism from a semiotic perspective, seeking to extend the interdisciplinary dialogue between political theory, comparative political science and Semiotics across different geographic areas.The Social Semiotics of Populism aims to shed new light on the complex nature of this political phenomenon by examining how meaning-making operates within the discourses and performances of populist political actors.In the book, populism is conceptualized as a discursive practice enacted by political actors in different contexts and through specific narrative structures.It is precisely in relation to the latter that the author's main thesis emerges: populism is best understood as the practice of producing meaning through, what he terms, the Populist Narrative Structure.This structure frames political content in binary terms, grounded in a fundamental division of the social space into two antagonistic groups: "the people" and "the people's other".Nevertheless, these collective identities, situated at the core of the semio-narrative level, are not pre-existent, but rather are relationally constructed through the opposition of the semantic units.As such, they serve as empty signifiers, acquiring concrete meaning only when filled with context-specific content through discursive practices, symbolic performances, and narrative procedures.Building on this definition, the book proves that it is precisely the Populist Narrative Structure, contextually filled and adapted, that accounts for both complexity and