Round table ‘Discourse: Meaning and Action’

Oct. 28th keynote ‘Analysing Discursive Shifts in Illiberal & Far-Right Discourse...’ by Michał Krzyżanowski (Hong Kong Polytechnic University), and roundtable representing three different traditions, with chair Alexander Alekseev, Emilia Palonen (University of Helsinki), and Ivan Fomin (Charles University in Prague).

How can social scientists approach increasingly complex and constantly changing discursive landscapes in ever more volatile and hostile political contexts of today? What tools does social science provide to those interested in studying discourse, meaning, and action? How do different research strategies that scholars have adopted to approach these topics work in different contexts?

 

Different methodological traditions focusing on social action offer slightly different answers to this set of questions. The Helsinki Research Hub on Emotions, Polarisation, and Populism (HEPP) hosts a roundtable featuring insights from Critical Discourse Analysis, post-foundational Discourse Theory, and Social Semiotics.

The day after the , in which he combines theoretical insights from post-structuralist Discourse Theory with the methodological toolkit of the Critical Discourse Analysis to study how the populist radical right discursively hijacks liberal democracy, HEPP is hosting a methodological roundtable bringing together leading international experts studying discourse, meaning, and social action.

 

The roundtable features Professor Michał Krzyżanowski (Hong Kong Polytechnic University), Associate Professor Emilia Palonen (University of Helsinki), and Assistant Professor Ivan Fomin (Charles University in Prague), representing three different traditions—Critical Discourse Analysis, post-foundational Discourse Theory, and Social Semiotics—and offering different recipes for studying the social.

Everyone is welcome to join. To facilitate planning the event, please register .

 

Practicalities

  • When: 13:00-15:00, Tuesday, 28 October 2025
  • Where: Seminar Room 524, Fabianinkatu 24 A (access via door, not courtyard), 5th floor

 

Programme

  • 13:00-13:45. Keynote ‘Analysing Discursive Shifts in Illiberal & Far-Right Discourse: Challenges for Critical Discourse Studies’.
    • Professor Michał Krzyżanowski (Hong Kong Polytechnic University)
  • 13:45-14:40. Roundtable discussion.
    • Professor Michał Krzyżanowski (Hong Kong Polytechnic University)
    • Associate Professor Emilia Palonen (University of Helsinki)
    • Assistant Professor Ivan Fomin (Charles University in Prague)
    • Moderated by Alexander Alekseev (University of Helsinki)
  • 14:40-15:00. Questions and answers.
  • 15:00-. Bubbles and nibbles.

The event is organised with the generous support of the Horizon Europe project (Continuous Construction of Resilient Social Contracts Through Societal Transformations).