This article unpacks the concept of ‘cultural populism’ in multiple ways, and explores its value for the critical analysis of new formations and expressions of populism in the current conjuncture. Taking Jim McGuigan’s influential book, Cultural Populism, as our point of departure, we begin by exploring its earlier use in cultural studies as a critical term for apolitical/celebratory modes of analysis, and then argue it may be usefully extended today to refer to popular and political efforts to construct a ‘people’ in overtly cultural terms. Second, we make the case for renewing an expressly ‘critical populist’ stance, one that is attentive to ordinary tastes and pleasures, while also locating and analysing them in relation to the production of needs and desires within a capitalist political economy, and that is attuned to the political possibilities for change. Third, we argue that the resources of cultural studies should be mobilised to redress some of the deficiencies of dominant accounts of populism from political science, and suggest that the twin concepts of cultural and critical populism offer an advance over the elitist and culturally reductive mode of analysis associated with Inglehart and Norris’ conception of ‘cultural backlash’. We conclude by offering an overview of the other contributions to the special issue, as they seek to push the concept of cultural populism in new directions, while also critically engaging with residual, dominant and emergent popular and populist currents in these new populist times.

本文以多种方式剖析“文化民粹主义”的概念，并探讨其在当前形势下对民粹主义的新形式和表现形式进行批判性分析的价值。以吉姆·麦奎根（Jim McGuigan）的有影响力的著作《文化民粹主义》作为出发点，我们首先探讨其在文化研究中的早期使用，作为非政治/庆祝性分析模式的关键术语，然后认为它可能会在今天有用地扩展，以指代建设“人民”的大众和政治努力。以明显的文化术语来说。其次，我们有理由重申一种明确的“批判民粹主义”立场，这种立场要关注普通的品味和愉悦，同时还要在资本主义政治经济学中根据需求和欲望的产生对它们进行定位和分析，也就是说适应改变的政治可能性。第三，我们认为，应该动员文化研究的资源，以弥补政治学对民粹主义占主导地位的解释的某些不足，并提出文化和批判民粹主义的双重概念相对于英格哈特和诺里斯的“文化反冲”概念而言，是一种超越了精英主义和文化还原性分析模式的进步。最后，我们概述了对特殊问题的其他贡献，因为它们试图将文化民粹主义的概念推向新的方向，同时也要批判性地与这些新的民粹时代的残余，支配和新兴的大众和民粹主义潮流进行互动。