Paper short abstract:

The aim of this paper is to discuss how negativity against migrants in neo-nationalist Scandinavia is related to negative beliefs towards “multiculturalism”, “feminism”, and “liberals” (left-wingers) in popular reasoning about difference

Paper long abstract:

Studies of European radical right political party programs, social movements, news media coverage, scores of books, and social media networks have embraced a negative dialogue towards migrants, whose identities are increasingly seen as incompatible with "Western" and national values and presenting a major challenge to the democracy. Neo-Nationalist sponsors of these public discourse support anti-migration and oppositionary stances to "migrant sympathizers", who are often represented as traitors or cowards. They also fuel a process where xenophobia and zero-tolerance have become naturalized and morally accepted ways to respond to the socalled non-Western migrants. But how do people reason reason on these issues in everyday interaction, during interviews, and in social media exchanges? The aim of this paper is to discuss how negativity against migrants in neo-nationalist Scandinavia is related to negative beliefs towards "multiculturalism", "feminism", and "liberals" (left-wingers) in popular reasoning about difference. While there is much research about different forms of exclusionary beliefs separately and against specific collectivities, there is little scientific knowledge about how one belief co-exists with another as figures in reasoning. We approach this coexistence as a "nexus of exclusionary beliefs" with its blurred relations, inherent contradictions, and taken for granted assumptions. Through interactive methods that include a variety of qualitative interviews and participant observation followed by analysis of online social media and web news commenting, we seek in this early phase of the project to understand the cultural logics of this contemporary Scandinavian reasoning about difference.