ELEMENTS OF PROTEST

Abstract

By taking Ernesto Laclau's recent book On Populist Reason as its starting point, the article sets out to establish a critical dialogue between Cultural Studies in the Birmingham tradition and political discourse analysis in the Essex School tradition. It is argued that Laclau's notion of antagonism (as a name for the logic by which differential elements are articulated into chains of equivalence) might be useful as the ‘missing link’ explaining the passage from micro-political forms of resistance, as analyzed by Cultural Studies, to macro-political hegemonic formations, as analyzed in the Essex School tradition. In addition, Laclau's recent theorization of the ‘minimal units’ of protest discourse – identified by Laclau as demands – may prove productive not only for Cultural Studies but also for discourse analytically informed New Social Movement research.

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