Short Abstract

Across settings shaped by different histories of liberalism, the panel asks what moves people towards anti-liberalism. It examines how visions of family, nation, hierarchy, and community become compelling through material conditions, embodied experience, narratives, and affect - and shape politics.

Long Abstract

In recent years, anti-liberal movements have grown in many liberal democracies. These movements challenge commitments to equal rights, universal dignity, and individual freedom. Anti-liberalism has also grown strong in many postcolonial settings, often being framed as resistance to Western cultural imperialism. It is important to understand the growth of anti-liberal movements, but this cannot be achieved by assuming that their leaders and supporters are driven solely by ignorance, hatred, or narrow self-interest. Instead, ethnographic attention is required to the notions of the good that move anti-liberals. Which visions of a desirable life and social order make the heterosexual family, the nation, hierarchy, or ethnically homogeneous community seem worth defending? Through which material conditions, embodied experiences, narratives, and affective atmospheres do these visions of the good become compelling? How do people express and cultivate their attachment to these goods through everyday practices, institutions, and politics? The panel invites papers from diverse regional and political contexts to address these questions comparatively. Comparison will help to shed light on what moves whom towards anti-liberalism, under what conditions, and with what effects. It will also allow us to identify different configurations of anti-liberalism and discern underlying similarities.