Search results for: Trump

Interpreting Public Speech

Although we frequently hear the complaint that politics is ‘all talk’, at the right moment speaking effectively can be a powerful resource. Steadying nerves, offering reassurance, provoking questions or disrupting consensus may, in specific contexts, make an enormous difference. In my recent article in Politics I argue rhetorical enquiry helps us understand speech as an […] Read more

The role of ‘cultural production’ in celebrity politics

In April 2004, Donald Trump attended WrestleMania XX, the largest annual pay-per-view event of the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) calendar, held that year at Madison Square Garden, New York. Sat ringside, he was interviewed by retired professional wrestler and former politician Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura, whose recent tenure as the 38th Governor of Minnesota had […] Read more

‘Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who Is the Ugliest of Them All?’: Othering as Soft Power Strategy

China’s global media expansion is one of the latest signs of the continued rise of the Middle Kingdom. As the tentacles of Chinese media expand far and wide, there is now a debate on whether Beijing’s global media reach has helped China spread its influence and boost its soft power abroad. For many observers, the […] Read more

Performing ‘Sectarianism’: Towards an Ethnographic Understanding of Identity Change

In a shifting and unstable world, questions regarding the cultivation, crystallisation, and manipulation of political and social identity categories seem more pressing now than ever before. Against the backdrop of rising populism, grassroots activism, and inter- and intra-communal antagonisms across the globe, how are we to make sense of the shifting sands of identity change? […] Read more

2018 Elections in Brazil: Political Reorder or ‘Gatopardism’?

This post is the introduction to our virtual special issue on the 2018 Brazil elections. The issue was edited by Adrián Albala and André Borges, from the University of Brasilia, who also wrote this introduction. Introduction Brazil’s 2018 Election have widely been commented for three main reasons. First, the emergence, or better said the meteoric […] Read more