Social Media and Politics is a podcast bringing you innovative, first-hand insights into how social media is changing the political game. Subscribe for interviews and analysis with politicians, academics, and leading digital strategists to get their take on how social media influences the ways we engage with politics and democracy. Social Media and Politics is hosted by Michael Bossetta, political scientist at Lund University. Check out the podcast's official website: https://socialmediaandpolitics.org.
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episode 126: The Cultural Sociology of Political Performance, Icons, and Social Media, with Prof. Jeffrey Alexander
Jeffrey Alexander, Professor of Sociology at Yale University, discusses his cultural sociology approach to political performance and cultural icons. We start out with the concept of fusion, and how political actors work to achieve it through the elements of political performance. Then, we turn to a discussion of objects, affordances, and the power of political icons.
Here's some extra reading on the topics we cover in the episode:
Cultural Pragmatics: Social Performance Between Ritual and Strategy (2004)
The Performativity of Objects (2020)