March for Sozialgeographie“? Rechtspopulismus als Zumutung und die regressive Moderne als Herausforderung der Humangeographie

• Published in: Geographica Helvetica Vol. 73; no. 4; pp. 309 - 319
• Main Author: Oßenbrügge, Jürgen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; German
• Published: Copernicus Publications 08.11.2018
• ISSN: 2194-8798; 0016-7312; 2194-8798
• DOI: 10.5194/gh-73-309-2018

The paper outlines an approach to right wing populism in recent years not only in critizing the use of so called alternative facts but using the concept of a regressive modernisation as a debate which includes populist movements into a broader social theory and diagnosis of western societies. The evolution of regressive modernisation reveals both, the success of a neoliberal globalization and a rise of marginality and perceived dangers of a downward mobility. These findings are used in order to explain certain transformations of academic fields in general and social geography in particular. It is argued that the success of postmodern geographies may be seen as an overcoming of hegemonic discourses of positivism as well as of marxism, but was and is unable to counteract geographies of recent right wing populism. Even the positions of the „march for science“ which has been a major initiative to fight for academic integrity are seen as not being sufficient to rebuilt an „antipopulist“ social geography. This situation leads to some suggestions and recommendation for further work in this field.