Between Populism and Popular Citizenship in Science Conflicts

The chapter explores science populism from a left-wing perspective to understand how populism relates to popular and democratic citizenship. The literature often conceptualises science populism as anti-democratic, however a left-wing perspective on populism allows us to explore the democratic and progressive potential when citizens engage in articulating alternative knowledge positions online that challenges hegemonic discourses in science and environmental conflict. This chapter therefore focuses on how the Danish Vegan Party draws on popular, digital citizenship to articulate alternative knowledge positions online that contribute to populist discourses on food, science, and the environment. The analysis of how the Vegan Party reformulate digital rights-claims allows the chapter to argue that three central and interconnected populist antagonistic logics are present in the vegan discourse: 1) conflicts regarding mainstream vs alternative knowledge, 2) the people vs the citizen, and 3) humans vs non-humans.