By legitimation I mean the processes through which political rule becomes tolerated or supported by different groups of people, temporarily resulting in the shared belief that politico-economic arrangements are righteous.
Popular culture is a pivotal social arena in which legitimation takes place. While not political in the narrow sense of the term, it gives rise to and negotiates political meanings and worldviews.
I study how stories and music help form group bonds and lead people to accept or challenge the politico-economic status quo. Moreover, I investigate how activists mobilize democratic visions that champion the popular to gestate an inclusive and humane social order for the many.
Atthe same time, I critically engage with the risk that mobilizing the culture of apeople may result in politics of exclusion, for instancewhen (imagined) elites and ostensible strangers are presented as conspiratorial forces sowing disunity.