Fear of Life - Ruth Wodak: Rightwing Populism on both Sides of the Atlantic

Ruth Wodak is Emerita Distinguished Professor of Discourse Studies at Lan- caster University, UK, and af liated to the University of Vienna. Besides vari- ous other prizes, she was awarded the Wittgenstein Prize for Elite Researchers in 1996. She has held visiting professor- ships in University of Uppsala, Stanford University, University Minnesota, University of East Anglia and George- town University. Recent book publica- tions include The Politics of Fear. What Right-wing Populist Discourses Mean (Sage, 2015; translation into the Ger- man Politik mit der Angst. Zur Wirkung rechtspopulistischer Diskurse. Konturen, 2016); Migration, Identity and Belonging (with G. Delanty, P. Jones, 2011). See http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/pro les/Ruth-Wodak for on-going research projects and a complete list of publications. Fear of Life. The City as a Habitat to All The actual (and not entirely surprising) political conditions of life in Austria and its neighboring countries is a burning as well as starting point to the planning of this international symposium. Fear respectively the creation of anxieties has become a much too powerful instrument of political persuasion. Solidaric processes are undermined if not destroyed, future is discount­ ed: if circumstances do obviously not improve at least they should not change anymore. How do notions of innovation come into play in an atmosphere of re­bordering Europe? How could artists, how should intellectuals act now? And from where? Should they change the contexts of their work? Should they start to focus already on much younger generations? Or should they establish safe spaces inside institutions? Big questions and maybe the answers could be found in distinct if not even pungent words, in highly precise and detailed actions, in repeated societal acupunctures in both virtual and ana­ logue spaces?