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Reposted by Antoine Sander

Political Studies @polstudies.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Can social media enable popular counter-power while reinforcing elite influence? @absander.bsky.social examines #saccageparis, finding its digital tactics gave citizens a tribunate role despite its non-popular composition. OPEN ACCESS: buff.ly/2z1TPOo @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #polsky #polsci

"Abstract
This article argues that the case of an idiosyncratic digital movement in Paris—#saccageparis—has much to contribute to recent debates around social media’s democratic potential. #saccageparis leaders paint themselves as contemporary tribunes of the plebs, a permanent counter-power representing the “small people” of Paris against the municipality. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, I examine in this article such claim. On the one hand, Twitter’s affordances enabled ordinary citizens to gain some of the attributes of a popular tribunate standing up to power while, on the other hand, the movement only gained this foothold because it was not itself popular. #saccageparis’s composition therefore contradicts its tactics, and the movement is best described as “bourgeois populism.” This case shows us how social media’s populist affordances can be exploited by elites and, as a result, offers precious insights for those interested in rescuing social media’s radical-democratic possibilities from elite capture."

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Reposted by Antoine Sander

Department of Politics & International Studies, Uni of Cambridge @campolis.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Dr Antoine Sander's @absander.bsky.social new article in 'Political Studies', based on his PhD research, is titled "Popular tribunate or bourgeois populism? #saccageparis and social media’s radical-democratic paradox". Read it here: doi-org.ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/10.1177/0032...

doi-org.ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk

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Antoine Sander @absander.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

I am deeply honored to be the recipient of the Lisa Smirl Prize. To know that the distinguished scholars on the panel thought my work to be noteworthy is something truly special, as was the support I received from Prof. Sharath Srinivasan and my peers in @campolis.bsky.social during the entire PhD.

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Reposted by Antoine Sander

Department of Politics & International Studies, Uni of Cambridge @campolis.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

💻PhD candidate, @absander.bsky.social, has published an article in Constellations, an international journal of critical & democratic theory, titled "Social Media, Democracy, and the Popular Public Sphere". Read the article here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @jesuscollegecam.bsky.social

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Social Media, Democracy, and the Popular Public Sphere

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