I’m sure one of these weeks I’ll actually upload a post on a Friday!

Although this time I have a good excuse, I had a zoom call with my supervisor this morning so decided that I would write this afterwards in case there were any updates from it. Luckily, it was a short one just to catch up and to get some pointers before I start writing.

Last week was mostly planning my report and reading academic articles for my literature review. Monday was mostly planning and working out the areas of research I particularly needed to concentrate on. Tuesday I spent scouring google scholar (hence the title), other search engines are available, and then from Wednesday through to Friday I read and took notes from them all.

I am now writing up the first part of my report. This part will address the debate between the cultural backlash and financial hardship theses about populism. The former suggests that populism arises due to a clash of cultures whereas the latter suggests it is due to economic shocks and financial inequality.

My second part will build on this debate and look at the influence of social demographic change on populism directly. Once I have written up my first section I will gather academic articles on this and then write up this section. Although my background reading will feature prominently in this section I will use a large selection of academic articles on the topic as well. My aim for the end of this week is to have finished my first part and be well underway with my second part.