Populism is crucial for our democracy

Sønderborg Folkeuniversitet presents a lecture on why populism has become a central concept in politics, culture, and society.

The past ten years have shifted fundamental ideas about what holds society together. Donald Trump's election and the 2016 Brexit referendum exposed growing distrust of elites and institutions. The 2015 refugee crisis challenged the idea of a borderless world, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 reminded us that power and geopolitics remain decisive factors in our reality.

Cand. mag. and ph.d. Christian Egander Skov draws on his new book "Populism Must Now Be Everything" and examines the divide that has emerged between the people and elites in Western democracies. His argument is that for many years we have underestimated the importance of popular community - and that a rediscovery of this community is necessary if democracy is to be strengthened.

The lecture poses questions such as: what does it actually mean for something to be populist? What binds a society together when global currents and internal conflicts pull in different directions? Drawing on historical perspectives and analytical rigor, Christian Egander Skov offers his view on how we can rebuild a shared "we" in a time marked by uncertainty and change.