Alvaro Oleart

Bio

Alvaro Oleart is an FNRS postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Political Science and the Institute for European Studies of the Université Libre de Bruxelles. His research focuses on the relationship between political conflict and democracy through a decolonial lens in the context of the European Union by analysing the discourse in the European public spheres, citizen participation processes, political parties, the media, civil society and transnational social movements from both an empirical and normative perspective. He is the author of the books “Framing TTIP in the European Public Spheres: Towards an Empowering Dissensus for EU Integration” (Palgrave, 2021) and "Democracy Without Politics in EU Citizen Participation: From European Demoi to Decolonial Multitude" (Palgrave, 2023).

CV

• October 2022 - present: FNRS Postdoctoral researcher at Université Libre de Bruxelles, CEVIPOL and Institute for European Studies (IEE-ULB)
• April 2021 - September 2022: Postdoctoral researcher at Maastricht University, Studio Europa, and Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS). The Netherlands.
• May 2019 - April 2021: Postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU), The Netherlands.
• 2015 - 2019: PhD in Information and Communication, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
• 2014 – 2015: Master in New Media and Society in Europe, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Belgium.
• 2014 – 2015: Executive Master in European Communication and Policy, Institut des Hautes Études des Communications Sociales (IHECS), Belgium.
• 2009 – 2013: Bachelor in History (with a mention in European Contemporary History), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Barcelona, Spain.

Areas of research

• Democracy
• European Union
• Political theory
• Politique sociology
• Social movements
• Participation citoyenne
• Civil society
• Disinformation
• EU Public policy on the digital sphere

Teaching

Questions de science politique interne (POLI-D310)

Research

My research focuses on the relationship between political conflict and democracy in the context of the European Union by analysing the discourse in the European public spheres, citizen participation processes, political parties, the media, civil society and transnational social movements from both an empirical and normative perspective. Before joining the ULB as an FNRS postdoctoral researcher, I was a postdoctoral researcher at Studio Europa and the Department of Political Science (within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, FASoS) of Maastricht University, and a postdoc researcher and lecturer at the department of Political Science and Public Administration of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam through the Horizon 2020 project ‘RECONNECT: Reconciling Europe with its Citizens through Democracy and the Rule of Law’. Currently, I am part of the Horizon Europe project ‘RECLAIM - Reclaiming Liberal Democracy in the Postfactual Age’ within the work package on tracing the digital regulation put forward by the EU regarding disinformation.

Publications

Oleart, A. (2023). Democracy Without Politics in EU Citizen Participation: From European Demoi to Decolonial Multitude. London: Palgrave.

Oleart, A. (2021)."Framing TTIP in the European Public Spheres: Towards an Empowering Dissensus for EU Integration". London: Palgrave.

Oleart, A. (2023).The political construction of the ‘citizen turn’ in the EU: disintermediation and depoliticisation in the Conference on the Future of Europe. Journal of Contemporary European Studies.

Oleart, A., & Theuns, T. (2022). ‘Democracy without Politics’ in the European Commission's Response to Democratic Backsliding: From Technocratic Legalism to Democratic Pluralism. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies.

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