Making it abstract, making it contestable: politicization at the intersection of political and cognitive science

Abstract The notion of politicization has been often assimilated to that partisanship, especially in political and social sciences. However, these accounts underestimate more fine-grained, yet pivotal, aspects at stake processes politicization. In addition, they overlook cognitive mechanisms underlying politicizing practices. Here, we propose an integrated approach relying on recent insights from both sciences, as well science. We outline two key facets politicization, call partial indetermination contestability , show how can be accounted for by appealing literature science concerned with abstract conceptual knowledge. suggest a concept implies making its components salient, hence legitimating contestable character. Finally, provide preliminary suggestions test our proposal, using the gender case study.