Inaugural Lecture - Professor Emile Chabal

Identity has become one of the most powerful mobilising forces in contemporary democratic politics. Since the 1970s, social movements based around race, gender, religion, language or sexuality have challenged political structures, parties, and movements. While some have argued that identity politics offers unique opportunities for citizens to participate in the democratic process, others have maintained that it damages the fabric of democratic politics by setting different groups against each other.

In this lecture, Professor Emile Chabal steps away from the polemic to consider the history of identity politics in Europe, offering an interpretation of new forms of political mobilisation within the larger context of the transformation of European democracy since the 1970s.