Politicization, Populism, and Civic Epistemologies: An Exploratory Study of the Epistemic Practices of Right-wing Populists in Denmark

While right-wing populist have succeeded in pushing the issue of migration to the top of political agendas around the world, issues related to climate change appear to resist politicization. However, we know little how ordinary, everyday actors motivate this focus on migration rather than climate, and similarly little about how issues are politicized or depoliticized in everyday conversation and interaction. Based on a series of focus groups conducted with right-wing populist party voters in Denmark, this article explores and analyzes how ordinary populists make politicization and depolarization claims through the issues of migration and climate change. Adopting a perspective with roots in American pragmatism, I conceptualize politicization claims as knowledge claims and argue that the politicization and depoliticization claims of Danish populists reveal the outlines of a shared civic epistemology. While this civic epistemology contains populist elements, I also show that this civic epistemology retains elements of more conventional epistemic hierarchies. The analysis demonstrates how the form, vocabulary, and evidential grounds of (de-) politicization claims help ordinary populists to succeed in making climate change into a private matter while transforming migration into a public issue. The article concludes in highlighting the importance of understanding politicization claims as knowledge claims, and argues that until other political actors find ways of counteracting the epistemic validity of populist politicization claims, the politicization of migration and depoliticization of climate change will likely continue.