ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides an anthropological approach to contemporary populism in Italy in the form of the Lega Nord or the Five Star Movement. It deals with the populist variant of a “rendering present of ‘the people’”, characterised by a rapport between leader and followers, which also relies on a symbolic or mystifying directness. In addition, everybody as a figure of popularisation and communication is at the centre of a whole series of contributions. The book also deals with the role of this figure in public spaces that emerge with the political upheavals from monarchic to pluralistic democratic political systems and investigate the subsequent figurations of everybodies in different time spans and across various visual media. It explores the genealogy of everybodies thrives on the tension between long historical duration and historical upheavals and re-figurations.