Paper short abstract:

Right-wing populism is on the rise all over Europe, both with respect to parliamentary politics and to everyday lives as it is gradually seeping into mainstream discourses. This paper seeks to discuss the specific contribution of political anthropology to the field of populism and extremism.

Paper long abstract:

Right-wing populism is on the rise all over Europe and North America. Not only has right-wing populism gained momentum with respect to parliamentary politics; it exerts a significant influence on everyday lives as it appears to be gradually seeping into mainstream discourses. Anthropologists and other social scientists are only beginning to ask how ethnographies of affective politics can help to understand this particular "Other" and thus the current crises of democracy and political representation. Yet, the quest for understanding social phenomena from the point of view of acting subjects lies at the heart of ethnography and cultural anthropology. However, ethnography for a long time has chosen to ignore those who are now gathering in or feel attracted by right-wing populist and extremist movements. This "Other" is not likeable and exotic, but rather boring, possibly strange, and even repulsive.

This paper seeks to critically discuss the specific contribution of political anthropology to the field of populism and extremism. Which preconceptions shape our perspective on social groups such as the (actual or perceptive) white middle class and white right-wing populist sympathizers and extremists more generally, their ways of life, attitudes, and worldviews? How does ethnographic knowledge relate to democratic processes of social representation? What, more broadly speaking, is (and can be) anthropology's role and responsibility in social and political processes? Finally, how can anthropology and ethnography matter and impact current and future developments?

Paper short abstract:

This paper deals with 'Boring White People' and how do anthropologists studying populist, extremist, and neo-fascist support base need to pay attention to social-cultural patterns and particularities instead of paying too much attention to political-economic perspectives.

Paper long abstract:

This paper deals with 'Boring White People' and how do anthropologists studying populist, extremist, and neo-fascist support base need to pay attention to social-cultural patterns and particularities instead of paying too much attention to political-economic perspectives.

The studies of workers, peasants, and others who have become the social-economic representatives of radical politics are fairly covered by anthropological inquiries, often depicted with great sympathy and solidarity. Studying 'the people we don't like' therefore also means that anthropologists study those whom they like to study very much and about whom they have substantial knowledge and whom some of anthropologists even contributed to imagine as political actors.

The present paper therefore aims to open the discussion on particular post-socialist basis of radicalization I understand as emerging from 'post-peasant' setting developed via communist modernization. On the example of the rise of support base of Slovak neo-fascist party that successfully entered national parliament in 2016 and continues to perform well in national polls and the performance of its leader I wish to illustrate the mainstreaming process of radicalization in Slovakia and eventually in other countries of the region. The basic premise of the paper reflects upon culturally intimate features of radical right derived from Douglas Holmes' (2017) observation that 'one of the dangers posed by fascism is to imagine oneself immune to its seductions.'

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the intersections of religion, nationalism, and militarism in contemporary Russia. It takes the anthropology of morality approach to investigate the growing appeal of paramilitary subculture to young men among Orthodox believers.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the intersections of Orthodox Christianity and militarism in contemporary Russia by tracing the growing appeal of paramilitary subculture to young men among Orthodox believers. Drawing on field research with members of a Moscow-based Orthodox military-patriotic brigade Dobrovolets, I analyze the young, conservatively-minded men's discourses on morality and patriotism and investigate their practices of ethical self-cultivation. I argue that the appeal of militant conservative ideology to these young men is best understood in reference to the perceived moral collapse, atomization, and de-spiritualization of society that are often linked discursively to the domination of secular Western liberal ethics. In such a context, religious and nationalistic discourses that build on radical imagery of self-sacrifice, heroism, and communal struggle have emerged as appealing ideological alternatives for young men seeking to demarcate their own transcendent horizons of significance. In the concluding part of my paper, I reflect on the crucial empirical and theoretical contribution the anthropology of morality can make to the study of political radicalism, as it enables the production of a nuanced account of the contemporary conservative and nationalist movements that takes seriously the moral imagination, ideology, and values that animate them. Likewise, the study of radical social and moral imaginaries and practices can bring valuable insights to anthropological debates on morality.

Paper short abstract:

I want to discuss and challenge that while anthropologists have highlighted hybridity, especially in migration studies, the research on right-wing-movements tends emphasize the extremes and to draw rigid borders.

Paper long abstract:

I want to discuss and challenge that while anthropologists have highlighted hybridity, research on right-wing-movements tends emphasize the extremes and to draw rigid borders between "us" and "them". I ask, how this can be explained and if it is an adequate research strategy.

There are truly extremist movements on the right, which should not be underestimated. But while anthropologist have highlighted that most migrants do not live in "parallel societies" and that most Muslims are not "Islamists", the distinction between "right" and "extreme right" is treated with much less care, leading even to an emphasis of the extremes. This urge to put people we do not like into boxes we do not like, is related to both political preoccupations and lack of first-hand ethnographic knowledge. But it also has to do with the way right-wing movements present themselves, often provoking observers with aggressive outlaw images to boost their importance.

My research took place among East-Berlin football fans associated with racism and hooliganism. The focus on extreme politics and violence prevents an adequate assessment of the diversity both within the over-all local fanbase and among its right-leaning fractions. This view fails to see that frictions and tensions, overlaps and connections are characteristic for the hooligan subculture, and it cannot understand the social position the truly radical minority occupies. Furthermore, it downplays change, except to note that things are getting worse. Since 2015 one could indeed observe a right-wing "backlash", but it followed a phase of decline and transformation of the hooligan subculture .

Paper short abstract:

The paper questions the "otherness" of preppers. It explores theoretical and conceptual problems arising from the phenomenon's oscillating between right wing extremism, mainstream culture and mass entertainment.

Paper long abstract:

So-called Preppers prepare themselves for future perils. Worst-Scenarios such as a long-lasting blackouts, pandemics, or civil wars lie at the heart of what has become a growing trend and lifestyle, especially in the US, Europe (Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria), and Australia. It involves fatalism and a certain ambivalence towards the reliability of institutions. According to preppers, the state is not capable of prohibiting or coping with a major catastrophe which ultimately results in its collapse. This ambivalence or even mistrust makes prepping liable to extremist views doubting the legitimacy of the current government or state authority in general.

The existing research regards preppers/survivalist as either a faction on the far right or a subculture. Mitchell (2002) and Huddleston (2018) see them as a misunderstood subculture which is wrongfully associated with political violence. Both perspective view preppers as a marginal phenomenon distinct from mainstream politics and culture. Considering the fact that there is a mass market for preparedness gear the claim of marginality is hardly convincing. Reality television shows such as Doomsday Preppers are both, educational television for preppers and mass-entertainment. Further, imagining the total collapse of the world "as we know it" is highly popular as the success of the television series The Walking Dead illustrates.

This raises several questions: How to deal with a phenomenon that is at the same time part of the extremist right, a mass marketed lifestyle, and mass entertainment? How to deal with both, extremist tendencies and commercial success of prepping?

Paper short abstract:

This paper draws on initial findings and interpretations from my ethnographic fieldwork in Merthyr Tydfil, UK. I reflect on negotiating the tensions arising from being a critical researcher and a politically-committed scholar comparatively researching right and left-wing political radicalism.

Paper long abstract:

This paper draws on initial findings and interpretations from my ethnographic research in Merthyr Tydfil, UK - a former center of coal and steel production, and of working-class mobilization, which has struggled for several decades as a mid-sized, post-industrial town in the South Wales Valleys. In the EU Brexit referendum, nearly 60% of Merthyr Tydfil's residents voted for the right-wing populist 'Leave' campaign, yet a year later, in the 2017 UK General Election, the majority of residents voted for a resurgent left-wing Labour party led by Jeremy Corbyn. These fluctuating dynamics in Merthyr Tydfil represent the collapse of the political center, and the ongoing crises of representative democracy and oppositional politics crippling Brexit Britain and other liberal democracies.

In response to these material and psychological conditions, my research attends to how residents of Merthyr Tydfil are seeking meaning and purpose through participation in resurgent populist parties and grass-roots movements - both right and left-wing "radical" parties and movements mobilizing the alienated and discontented electorate. In this paper, I examine the complex factors motivating my research participants' political affiliations, regardless of their political views, while also accounting for how my opposition to far-right populism and support for radical, left-wing politics informs and impacts my dynamics with my research participants and the content of my research. In this way, I reflect on how I have negotiated the tensions arising from my positionality as both a critical researcher and a politically-committed scholar comparatively researching right and left-wing political radicalism.