Who Are We? Populism and Citizenship Today

• Week 1: The new nationalism—global populism
  We will ask what is new about the current wave of nationalism, and how it is captive to populism the world over. Why is this brand of populism, dressed up as democracy, so successful? Is it more about people feeling “left behind,” about privilege being challenged, or about growing inequality?
• Week 2: Imagining citizenship—past and present
  Why did Plato put the citizen at the heart of his Republic? The story is picked up by modern democratic thought, where citizenship is the beating heart—but not without heart problems. We will compare the ideal with reality, in asking what seems to have gone wrong in our day. 
• Week 3: The outsiders 1—“enemies within”
  How did health and public policy experts become public enemies? What makes migrants (from certain quarters) and Muslims handy scapegoats for populist nationalism? We will ask whether “identity politics” explains much of our polarization, or whether there are other inconvenient truths that deserve our attention.
• Week 4: The outsiders 2—secular vs. religious?
  The “secularization thesis,” which holds that modernity is built on a rationality that must be secular, has long dominated Western political thought. But is this true? We will ask whether what we have today is a clash not so much of civilizations as of fundamentalisms, secular and religious.  
• Week 5: Eyes on the prize—civil society and its discontents
  Democracy is hugely invested in the idea of civil society, which is felt to be vital to public discourse under the rule of law. What are the conditions for this to actually happen? Is civil society the “good society” as understood in our political ethics, past and present?  
• Week 6: So, who are we?
  We will hike through recent versions of Canadian identity, asking whether these can come together in a capacious pluralism. Climate change knows no boundaries, and challenges us to take seriously a collective coming together. Will we grasp the stakes—or heighten polarization in what Astra Taylor calls “the age of insecurity”?

By the end of the course, you should be able to:

• Explain what drives populism, and how it differs from democracy
• Understand why “effective” citizenship and civil society are at the heart of liberal political culture
• Grasp the complexity of secularism as a key feature of modernity—and how it has become politicized
• Engage confidently in discussions about why polarization today has much to do with the crisis of pluralism  

• Lectures
• Participation in discussions
  
• Supplementary resources accessed through Canvas
  
• Reflective essay (applicable only to certificate students)

No textbook is required. We will provide all course materials online. Recommended reading: The Age of Insecurity, by Astra Taylor (Anansi, 2023).