# Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion Book Launch / Insecurity Politics ![Navy blue graphic shapes over an image of the Memorial Hall tower with a white Weatherhead logo.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_5_4__480x385/public/2025-04/Cosponsored%20Event%201.png?itok=2hs9CX0Z) #### calendar\_today Date and Time **April 7, 2026** 04:00PM - 05:30PM EDT #### pin\_drop Location **CGIS Knafel, Bowie-Vernon Room (K262)** [1737 Cambridge Street Cambridge, MA 02138 United States ]() Registration is required. [ Register to attend arrow\_circle\_right ](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScekuyHE8IkTnf8_UKkft64Ts_nS2-cRE_R7s-ZwZh9cInMZw/viewform) ## Book Launch / Insecurity Politics: How Unstable Lives Lead to Populist Support ### Speaker - Lorenza Antonucci, Associate Professor in Sociology, University of Cambridge. ### Discussant - Peter A. Hall, Faculty Associate. Krupp Foundation Professor of European Studies, Department of Government, Harvard University. ### Chair - Michèle Lamont, Faculty Associate; Chair, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion. Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies; Professor, Departments of Sociology and African and of African American Studies, Harvard University. ### Contact **Max Calleo** ### Description In *Insecurity Politics*, Lorenza Antonucci examines the lived, everyday experiences that underpin political disaffection. Countering the reductive portrayals of populist voters as left-behind outsiders, Antonucci focuses on the ordinary, yet increasingly precarious, realities of work and financial instability as key to understanding the surge in populist support in both right- and left-wing politics. Drawing on robust comparative quantitative and qualitative analyses across nine European countries, *Insecurity Politics* describes the microlevel material and cultural dynamics that drive anti-establishment politics. It finds that dissatisfaction with work and a growing sense of financial insecurity fuel populist sentiments. Antonucci maps the evolving landscape of insecurity in contemporary Europe, tracing its roots to structural transformations of welfare states and deep-seated cultural shifts. Proposing an original framework that combines cultural and economic explanations, the book shows how economic, social, and political factors shape receptivity to anti-establishment politics. Moving beyond conventional wisdom that attributes today’s populism to cultural backlash or globalization, Antonucci addresses a critical blind spot in current research. But *Insecurity Politics* offers more than a mere diagnosis; it also argues that a nuanced understanding of populist attitudes could inform a renewed political agenda—one more attuned to the complex realities of people’s lives. ### Bio Lorenza Antonucci is an Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Cambridge. Their research is concerned with understanding how societies are changing and reacting to growing work and financial precarity in Europe and globally. Antonucci has conducted several comparative projects on the causes of socio-economic insecurity and its effects in exacerbating inequalities and in driving the populist vote. Before joining Cambridge, Antonucci was: Associate Professor/Deputy Director of Research (Methodology) at the College of Social Sciences at University of Birmingham (UK) (2017-2025); German Kennedy Memorial Fellow & Visiting Scholar at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (Harvard University) (2022-2023); Visiting Associate Professor at the Centre d'études européennes et de politique comparée (2022) and the AxPo Observatory of Market Society Polarization (2025) at Sciences Po, Paris. Antonucci’s research has been published in international journals in sociology (e.g., European Sociological Review, Current Sociology), political science (e.g., Electoral Studies) and social policy (e.g., Social Policy and Administration). Her research and writing have been featured in numerous international outlets such as The New York Times, Slate, BBC4, The Guardian, Jacobin and The Independent. Their forthcoming book, Insecurity Politics (Princeton University Press, 2026), offers an in-depth examination of the role of insecurity in the political sociology of populist voting. Antonucci has a keen interest in investigating insecurity both empirically (using quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods) and theoretically alongside other key sociological concepts across cultural and economic sociology, such as social status, recognition and sociology of risk. See also:- [ 2025–2026 ](/academic-year/2025-2026) - [ Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion ](/event-categories/weatherhead-research-cluster-comparative-inequality-and-inclusion) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#) Save: [ Add to calendar calendar\_today ](https://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/node/1934226/event-feed.ics) Copy link link