Populism, neoliberalism and sustainable alternatives in rural Europe

Right-wing populism has gained ground in Europe in recent years, with the greatest support among rural communities. Yet the European countryside remains largely overlooked in debates on the current political crisis and the ways out of it.

In this lecture, Dr. Natalia Mamonova will discuss the key factors that influence rural support for regressive political forces in Europe, paying especial attention to the processes in Central and Eastern Europe. She will engage with the agrarian studies literature to demonstrate the impact of neoliberal capitalism in the European countryside, revealing its social, economic and environmental costs. She argues that the countryside provides not only a breeding ground for right-wing populism, it also may offer progressive solutions in the form of emancipatory rural politics.

NATALIA MAMONOVA is a postdoctoral researcher at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs and the principal coordinator of the European team of the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI Europe). She holds a PhD from Erasmus University, the Netherlands. Her research interests focus on populism, food sovereignty and agrarian movements in rural Europe, primarily in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. During different periods, Natalia was a visiting researcher/ lecturer at the University of Oxford, the ’New Europe College’ in Bucharest, and Helsinki University.

The discussion will be moderated by Ildikó Asztalos Morell associate professor in sociology and lecturer at the Division of Rural Development and Noémi Gonda researcher at the Division of Rural Development based on reflections inspired by their own research on populism and authoritarianism in CEE countries and beyond.

Read more about Ildikó Asztalos' research on her CV page

Read more about Noémi Gonda's research on her CV page

This talk is part of the higher seminar series in Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. If you want to get e-mails about our events, please contact: Ildikó Asztalos Morell or Linley Chiwona-Karltun