Material Populism

In my research on mobility infrastructures in Cuenca, Ecuador, an unanticipated theme emerged that I am currently giving particular attention to. Political leaders on the national and local levels commonly offer change in the form of physical infrastructures. Wherever a construction project takes shape, it emerges as both an enactment of progress and the personal achievement of the leader in charge. As an apparently objective improvement beyond ideological debate, infrastructure projects thus bring together leaders and ordinary citizens in a relationship of patronage. This relationship is often felt as intimate and intense by citizens, but can easily backfire when specific infrastructure projects produce undesired outcomes. When a project is suspended or perceived as flawed or exclusionary, support quickly turns into rejection, and the strong leader into a corrupt liar.

In this way, infrastructures become a key mediator in populist politics: they actively participate in the making of personalist leaders, affective crowds, and the Manichean divide between “the people” and the elite, good and bad, truth and lie. The above picture is suggestive in this respect. It was taken on a trip through Ecuador in the run-up to the 2023 presidential elections. During election periods, the country’s roadsides turn into multifarious campaign devices. The picture captures the campaign of the Citizens’ Revolution party, which has been trying to return to power after years in opposition. While in government (2007-2017), the Citizens’ Revolution, with its charismatic leader Rafael Correa, enjoyed unparalleled support thanks in large part to its nation-wide infrastructure construction agenda. Its eventual downfall, likewise, had much to do with the construction projects and the complications and corruption charges that came to haunt them. And yet, a large voter base longs for the return of the Citizens’ Revolution and its “obras”, public works — hence the slogan in the picture: “Vuelven las obras” (the public works return). The road in the picture is simultaneously an infrastructure for people’s mobility and for the negotiation of political support, belonging, truth, and desire.

From these considerations, I propose a broader research focus on what I call material populism, that is, the material dimensions of populist processes. It is true that the kind of “obras politics” (Rumé 2025a) observed in Ecuador constitutes a very specific case, but it is also true that any political process is also material in various, significant ways, and that this materiality is often neglected in academic debates around populism. My proposal for material populism as a lens suggests that, by taking into account these neglected dimensions, we might obtain new insights into current political developments throughout the world, including their contingent, more-than-human nature. As part of this research agenda, several publications, conference panels, and other activities are planned.

Outputs

In review. Article. From Laclau to Latour: Reassembling populism, in Ecuador and beyond.

In review. Book chapter. “Even the Speed Cameras Are Thieves Around Here”: Experiences of the Technological State in Ecuador. In J. Cuffe and P. Walsh (eds.), CyberSocial Transformations: Disruption and Continuity in the Everyday.

2025. Conference paper. “Shifting materialities of the populist state”, presented on the panel “Building infrastructures, making states”, chaired by Dimitris Dalakoglou. EASA Anthropologies of the State network conference “Shifting States”, 22–24 October, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

2025. Article. Obras Politics: Elements of Material Populism in Ecuador. American Ethnologist, 52 (2): 183-194.