Perspectives on Political Culture: Old Questions and New Developments

This section is concerned with longstanding questions of political culture research and novel developments and applications of the concept alike. The papers collectively illustrate the continuing relevance of political culture in present-day political analysis, as well as offering the opportunity for theoretical consolidation of this indispensable field. Panel (P509), ‘Theory and Dynamics of Political Culture’ , is oriented towards theoretical and conceptual issues, both in a broad sense and in specific applications. One issue raised here is the relationship between political culture and what might be seen as either components of it or adjacent concepts and approaches, and it is in relation to a selection of such concepts and approaches that the remaining three panels are grouped. Panel (P288), ‘Memory and Nostalgia’, brings together papers which address issues and case studies of collective memory and nostalgia, related to political culture by some authorities in terms of the idea of ‘historical experience’. Exactly how memory is formed, by whom and with what effects, are important questions arising under this rubric. Panel (P229), titled ‘Identity in Political Culture’, examines the important category and political cultural component of identity. The processes by which identity is created, activated or changed are exposed in a number of diverse settings. Panel (P129), ‘Democratic and Populist Attitudes in Political Culture’, contains papers focusing on political attitudes, and relating them in various ways to the contemporary macro-phenomena of populism and other democratic challenges. Further descriptions of the panels and papers may be found under the links below.