Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities, University of Brighton, University of Brighton
Andy Knott works in political theory, with a specific interest in political subjects, especially individualism and the people of populism, as well as debates across contemporary democratic theory.
Current research is focused on populism, with an interest in drawing on theoretical, historical and contemporary accounts of this complex political phenomenon. Recent projects have involved: the thorny question of defining populism; analysing populism's beginnings; left-wing populism; and, populism and political subjects.
Andy is also working on a longer-term historical project on individualism, drawing in Hobbes, Locke, Defoe and Swift, Smith, Bentham, Mill, Hobhouse, Hayek and other neoliberals.
Research interests also include Laclau, Mouffe, discourse theory, radical democracy, and their roots in the likes of Machiavelli and Gramsci.
Boris Johnson's flirtation with populism will have lasting consequences for the Conservative Party
Oct 02, 2019 03:08 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics
UK politics is getting more dramatic, divisive and nastier. Nowhere is this more evident than in the populist turn taken by the Conservative Party. Problematically for them, however, populism is incompatible with some of...
What is populism – and why is it so hard to define?
Nov 26, 2018 16:37 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics
We live in a moment in which the word populism is never far from the lips of politicians (although oh so rarely of the populist politicians themselves). We hear the word repeated over and over, but once we try to get a...
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