This panel explores the rising influence of civilizationist and exclusionary narratives in populist movements, focusing on how nostalgia and identity reconstruction drive political dynamics in Turkey, Pakistan, and India. In these contexts, populist parties such as Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) deploy narratives founded on restorative nostalgia, invoking a “golden age” to foster a pure, singular national or civilizational identity. These parties leverage emotions tied to nostalgia and reclamation, aligning them with identity-based exclusion and polarisation. The panel’s papers examine the different roles of affective and ideological polarisation within these movements, alongside shifts in traditional values around gender, family, and social roles that reinforce populist agendas.
A first paper in our panel presents a comparative analysis of how nostalgia and civilizationalism drive exclusionary identities, considering the roles of policy, rhetoric, and group identity. A second paper investigates the effects of polarisation within an autocratic regime, focusing on affective and ideological divides between supporters and opponents of Turkish leadership. A third paper examines the construction of a contemporary conservative Turkish identity under current socio-political pressures, exploring the intersecting themes of nationalism, historical continuity, and global positioning. Finally, a comparative analysis across Turkey, Pakistan, and India highlights how gender roles and family structures intersect with political ideology, revealing deep-seated societal polarisations shaped by populist strategies.
Through qualitative and quantitative analyses and using computational social science methods, this panel provides novel insights into how backward looking, nostalgia-driven narratives and traditionalist values are mobilised to reinforce ideological boundaries and dividesw, with implications for understanding the emotional and cultural foundations of modern populism in civilizational contexts.