Event Reports: Visual Methods in Global Cooperation Research / Visuality and the Populist Appeal

Visual Methods in Global Cooperation Research

Thursday, 5th May 2022 | Workshop
 

For some time, the scholarship on political science and International Relations focused on language – texts and written materials had predominance over other sources. Yet, the dramatic increase in the use and sharing of visuals in the digital age encouraged scholars to take visuals into consideration. Since the Politics of Representation (Shapiro 1988), the scholarship has been more broadly engaging with what is known as the 'aesthetic turn in international political theory' (Bleiker 2001) and heading toward a 'visual turn'. Drawing on the groundbreaking work on visual culture (Hall 1999), scholars from the social sciences began to reflect on visibility (Brighenti 2007) and what it means to look/not-look (Möller 2009) in international politics.

Since 'the politics of images is far too complex to be assessed through a single method' (Bleiker 2015: 873), visual analysis calls for methodological pluralism. This workshop aimed at contributing to the existing research on visual methods in global cooperation research.

Nicole Doerr (GCR21 and CoMMonS) looked at how far right and extremist gendered identities are translated from the U.S. to Germany and how visuals, such as memes of Pepe the Frog are used to create a feeling of 'otherness' in specific dimensions such as gender. Populism was further discussed by Axel Heck (University of Kiel) who highlighted the role of media in covering populist protests, which should be understood as populist visualities. Katja Freistein (Helmut Schmidt University), Frank Gadinger, Christine Unrau (Centre for Global Cooperation Research) contributed to the panel by discussing visuals from right-wing and populist groups and showed how women are objectified in visuals and thus used to project plans and strategies of populist right-wing parties.

'Relatives of disappeared hold posters and photographs during a sit-in protest in Srinagar, seeking the whereabouts of their loved ones, KL photo by Bilal Bahadur' https://kashmirlife.net/seeing-the-unseen-issue-36-vol-12-253335/

The aspect of gender was also broached by Amya Agarwal (University of Freiburg) who presented her work on the interpretation of murals of grieving mothers and graffiti exchanges in the Kashmiri resistance, while Lisa Bogerts (IPB Berlin) discussed the multiple dimensions of political street art in Latin America.

Ofra Klein (European University Institute) showed how the Covid-19 pandemic was conflicted and contested on social media platforms such as Instagram through visuals and the use of the latter by the youth, and how visuals reinforce dynamics of 'us versus other'. Visuals related to pandemics were also discussed by Katharina Krause (University of Tübingen) who introduced the use of actor-network theory in relation to visual methods and discussed the pandemic suit as an 'icon' of pandemics.

The use of visuals by officials was also discussed by Nina Schneider (Centre for Global Cooperation Research) who introduced official short films from Brazil under military dictatorship as propaganda which resonated with the work of Gabi Schlag (University of Tübingen), who discussed visual discourse analysis and its various dimensions in relation to 'fake' images. Matthias Ecker-Ehrhardt (Centre for Global Cooperation Research) introduced his research on visual legitimation and 'going personal' in international organizations' social media communication by using visuals of famous figures within IOs to create a feeling of kinship. Former Fellow Bidisha Bishwas (Western Washington University) focused on the individual by tracking her father’s journey as a refugee to India from East Pakistan by the use of visuals, therefore reflecting on new visual methods.

 

Visuality and the Populist Appeal – 24th Käte Hamburger Dialogue

Thursday, 5th May 2022 | Webinar
 

The 24th Käte Hamburger Dialogue aimed at shedding light on the use of visuality by populist groups and how visuals, whether posters, memes or videos, are crucial in the strategy of the far-right to provide an identity to their supporters but also to convey political messages to a broader audience. Reunited under the moderation of Nicole Doerr, who is a senior research fellow at the Centre and director of the Copenhagen Centre for Political Mobilisation and Social Movement Studies (CoMMonS), the four panellists shared their expertise on the role of visuality in populism.

Bernhard Forchtner, University of Leicester, discussed the aspect of visuality and climate change and the melodramatic note with which the story is conveyed. He also reflected on the gender dimension of certain visuals, and in the supposed lack of agency of far-right voters versus the frightening agency of some other actors such as climate change activists that are often the target of populist groups. The gender component in visuality and populism was also highlighted by Emilia Palonen, University of Helsinki, who presented her work on populism in Finland and Hungary, and discussed the billboards’ visuals used during the recent presidential campaign in which Viktor Orban was elected for the fourth consecutive time in April 2022. She showed how gender, such as in images picturing a mother and a child, or distrust feed the dynamics of populism in Hungary.

Visuals deployed by right-wing populists in Sweden. Slide shared by Melanie Schiller (2022), used with permission.

Paolo Gerbaudo, who is a Reader in Digital Politics and Director of the Centre for Digital Culture at King's College London, discussed the use of symbols in social movements and populism. By showing photographs of the Arab Spring or the Gilets Jaune, he showed how symbols such as the Egyptian flag or a simple yellow jacket provide a sense of unity and identity to a highly diverse group of people who engage in contestation. Finally, Melanie Schiller, University of Groningen, discussed visuality and populism in relation to music and more particularly Swedish right-wing bands. Through the use of visuals that can be characterised as 'cute' and 'fashionable' she pointed to the 'popification' of the radical-right with a change of aesthetics that intends to break with masculinity that was so far associated with such music.

 

Text contributed by Victoria Derrien and published by Andrew Costigan (communications@gcr21.uni-due.de)