Manuel Cervera-Marzal obtains a position of Research associate from the FNRS at ULiège
Manuel Cervera-Marzal, PhD in sociology and political philosophy within the research group PragmApolis (IRSS/Faculty of Social Sciences) of the University of Liege, obtains a mandate of Research associate from the FNRS (Belgian Fund for Scientific Research) to continue his research concerning three political parties.
T
he work of Manuel Cervera-Marzal focuses on three political parties that are all left-wing populisms: Podemos, France Insoumise and the Belgian Labour Party. This study investigates the genesis of these political parties and how they emerged in an electoral competition that is quite exclusive. Manuel Cervera-Marzal seeks to understand what happens when political activists of the radical left, who are not professionals in politics, find themselves at the heart of the institutions. In other words: “Do institutions change the elected, or will the elected manage to change the institutions?”
“Knowledge for knowledge's sake serves a purpose,” explains Manuel Cervera-Marzal. However, here, “the research question is a scientific question that echoes real debates in society that are of interest to all those who are involved in politics, but also, quite simply, to all those who have the right to vote.” In the public debate, there are two conflicting positions: those who think that populism is a threat to democracy and those who, on the contrary, see populism as a way to resuscitate democracy. Sociology and political science try to further this debate by providing the most documented facts possible.
During his research, Manuel Cervera-Marzal realized that “if we are not interested in politics, it is politics that is interested in us and that catches up with us. Either we reflect on ourselves, our working conditions and how we can defend them, or we allow ourselves to be dominated, oppressed, and exploited. My task is to contribute to the production of scientific knowledge. I hope that this knowledge will be appropriated by the dominated, the oppressed, the exploited, rather than by those who exploit them. I have turned to this field because our lives and freedoms are at stake.”
Over the next few years, Manuel Cervera-Marzal's work will follow two directions. “First, I will continue my investigations of Podemos, France Insoumise, and the Belgian Labour Party, to study what happens to protest parties as they become institutionalized. My second line of research concerns the epistemology of social sciences. With my colleague Bruno Frère, we are currently writing a four-handed book in which, inspired by the philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, we attempt to sketch out a new path for sociology, at the crossroads between a critical and a pragmatic approach.”
About Manuel Cervera-Marzal
Originally from France, Manuel Cervera-Marzal did a master’s degree in political science at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris. He obtained his PhD in political science in 2014 thanks to his thesis, which focused on civil disobedience actions and the reasons why some people, like Gandhi or Martin Luther King, allow themselves to undertake illegal actions within a democratic regime. With his doctorate in hand, Manuel Cervera-Marzal went on to complete a series of post-doctoral studies in Spain, Marseille and Liège. “My arrival at the University of Liège owes much to the friendship I have established with the sociologist Bruno Frère, my promoter, and to the deep esteem I have for his work. We share a strong interest in critical theory and in a sociology that interacts with philosophy.” Finally, in October 2022, “after seven long years of precariousness, [he] gets this position as a qualified researcher of the FNRS”.
An article written by Lola Barnabé, intern at the Dpt Communication of the University of Liege
