Active Lab together with Gender Lab is hosting a discussion about Jelena Lončar’s book “Performance of political representation: what are the representatives’ speeches for?”. This book presents a complete and detailed analysis of the process of performing political representation and its effects, considering how different representatives position themselves and on whose behalf they speak, what tools and resources they use and how they influence the audience and those they represent. The author shows that representation takes place on different stages, through an active and dynamic process of presenting and accepting claims that have a distinctly productive, constitutive power. While existing research predominantly maintains a static and one-dimensional view of representation, this book points to the complexity of representational processes by illuminating their aesthetic, creative, dynamic and relational aspects. Another contribution of the book is reflected in the connection of different traditions, that is, the application of an interdisciplinary approach. The book shows that a performative understanding of representation would not be possible without relying on different traditions, especially the humanistic one, and communicating with them. The author especially emphasizes the importance of insights that come from sociology, linguistics, semiotics, cultural studies and theater studies. While classical theoretical thought on political representation and the first constructivist insights developed without sufficient reliance on prior knowledge in different disciplines, this book has attempted to connect their various contributions with the aim to look at the larger picture of political representation and perceive all its complexities.

Dr Jelena Lončar is an associate professor at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Political Science, where she teaches Political Sociology courses. She holds a PhD in Politics from the University of York, UK. Her research interests include political representation, gender & politics, ethnic politics, and civil society. In recent years, her research has focused on the performance of political representation and the performativity of the representative claims. She writes extensively about representation of women and ethnic minorities and autocratization trends in South-East Europe.