Paper short abstract:

Without misrecognising the invaluable insight gained from participant observation, the author will discus other forms of field work on "ugly movements" and stress the importance ethnographic writing, while reflecting on her own encounter with the Spanish far-right as a feminist scholar.

Paper long abstract:

Long-term immersion and face-to-face-interaction in place-bound marginal communities is both part of the identity of anthropologists and an open debate within the discipline. As Nader (1975) pointed out, this equation might constrain the much-needed engagement of anthropologists with the political problems of our times. Furthermore, the digital revolution has changed dramatically interactions as well as data production and access. Certainly, engaging ethnographic research with "repugnant others" challenges the mandates of participant observation, such as empathy, knowledge restitution or even fully informed consent (Harding 1991, Avanza 2008). Is face-to-face participant observation the cornerstone of ethnographic fieldwork for every research problem, even on ugly movements (Tarrow 1994)? How much distance or proximity is productive for each researcher? Could we retain the insightful strategy of "displacement" from the familiar while emancipating it from participant observation (Feldman 2011)?

In this paper I will reflect upon these questions from my own encounter with the Spanish far-right as a feminist scholar while researching on gender violence policy. Without misrecognising the invaluable ethnographic experience of face-to-face participant observation, I will argue that we should discuss other forms of data production and collection, alternative or complementary to participant observation, as well as focus on the many challenges of ethnographic writing on "ugly movements". Thinking of ethnography beyond participant observation instead of patrolling the boundaries of the discipline might be a plausible path.

Paper short abstract:

Drawing upon past research on right-wing regionalism in northern Italy and ongoing research on populism in Poland, the paper examines some challenges anthropologists face in researching 'populism', and argues that participant observation remains a powerful tool for understanding populism's dynamics.

Paper long abstract:

Populism has surged back into use in anthropological debates with the consolidation of increasingly populist regimes and the radicalization of populist rhetoric in Europe and the Americas. Yet the questions of what anthropologists' encounters with the 'populist' are like, and of what theoretical and methodological tools anthropologists should avail themselves while researching right-wing populism still await answers. Drawing upon ethnographic sketches from past research on right-wing regionalism in northern Italy and from ongoing research on populism in Poland, the paper examines some of the challenges anthropologists face in the 'field'. Its point of departure is the idea that encounters with right-wing populism do not necessarily involve dealing with extremism, but rather with collective forces that are not organized by hegemonic social forms. Such forces often include people who move from left to right and back again in search of someone who will address their concerns. What makes these groups intriguing, as Douglas Holmes has suggested, is that although their political leanings cannot be aligned along a simple left-right axis, they can espouse agendas animating something like right-wing populism. The paper pursues the argument that because populism is a complex phenomenon that defies easy definition, anthropologists are very well situated to contribute to understanding both its nature and its dynamics. They can accomplish this by availing themselves of 'traditional' tools such as participant observation, and particularly by focusing on the sites where populism manifests itself in different forms, which are not reducible to spaces of institutional governance.

Paper short abstract:

Research on Right-Wing Movements poses serious emotional and ethical challenges for ethnographers. Reflecting on fieldwork in EastBerlin, I argue that some wideheld assumptions about fieldwork need to be challenged, but that the principle of dialogical anthroplogy can still be upheld in most cases.

Paper long abstract:

Research on Right-Wing Movements poses serious emotional and ethical challenges for ethnographers, especially when being confronted with racism and violence. Based on ethnographic field-research with former hooligans in East Berlin, I argue that some wideheld assumptions about fieldwork need to be challenged, but that the principle of dialogical anthroplogy can still be upheld in most cases. Focusing on the the affective dynamics of fieldwork, I will highlight some recurring emotional and moral dilemmas and possible forms of reflexive engagement.

Fieldwork in right-wing miieus often has to deal with fear, repulsion and other kinds of "emotional walls" (Hochschild). While this proves to be a serious challenge, especially at the beginning, during fieldwork surprising sympathies and uncanny identifications with certain individuals might prove to be much more emotionally disturbing. A frequent moral dilemma occurs when research participants ask for help or small favors. For long anthropologists have felt the need for some kind of reciprocity, but with regard to right wing populism this might lead to rather troubling forms of support. However, in research practice the question of when and where to help (not) is often hard to answer.

Discussing such emotional and moral dilemmas, I argue for some forms of dialogical and reflective engagement, including an interest in persons beyond the actual fieldwork (and beyond politics), the sharing of manuscripts before publication or the discussion of texts/books afterwards. At the same time, researchers have to be highly aware of possible threats of intimidation and of likely attempts of political manipulation.

Paper short abstract:

Feminist anthropology has a long and rich methodological tradition of self-reflexivity and awareness of power relations in the field. Drawing from these approaches can enrich the study of populism in Europe on both methodological and empirical levels.

Paper long abstract:

The political and social presence of the populist and Far Right is relatively new to Europe but has been an established reality in many other parts of the world including Eastern Europe, Asia and Middle East. Anthropologists have also been studying groups that can be situated along the right-wing, authoritarian/anti-democratic and religiously conservative spectrum. In this paper, I reflect on the anthropologist's positionality in the study of European right-wing, populist movements from this wider comparative perspective while particularly drawing from insights from feminist anthropology and methodology. My aim is twofold. First, I argue that feminist anthropology's long and rich tradition of foregrounding self-reflexivity and focus on creating egalitarian ethnographic sensibilities provide important insights for this goal. Drawing from Faye Ginsburg's classical work on anti-abortion and pro-life activism in the US (1998) and Nancy Scheper-Hughes' work on mothers abandoning their offspring while living in extreme poverty in Brazil (1993), I explore some of the meanings of working with 'the repugnant other'. A second argument moves from the methodological to a more empirical level. Existing scholarship on right-wing, religiously conservative populism in the global South has shown great attention to gender and sexuality related topics, as these often occupy central stage sparking protest and public debate. Common emerging themes are morality, family values and 'familism'. On this basis, I argue that examining European populism through the lenses of cross-cultural transnational themes, particularly related to gender and sexuality, while considering interconnected global temporalities may be a fruitful approach.

Paper short abstract:

Ethnographic research with neofascist activists raises specific methodological issues concerning the possibility of accessing the field and the researcher's personal safety. I draw on my ethnographic fieldwork with a neofascist movement active in contemporary Italy to analyse some of these features.

Paper long abstract:

This contribution to the panel will give some insight on the methodological and ethical issues of "taking the risk" while doing ethnography with far-right and neo-fascist movements and parties. I show on one hand the ethnographic tool needed to obtain knowledge: the emotion of fear. On the other hand, ethnographic insights provided evidence of the prominent place violence plays in this neo-fascist movement, a multi-faced violence - combining both a socio-political and a gender violence - bearing a whole set of dangers and risks, especially for a woman. This leads me to highlight some delicate issues concerning researchers' personal safety as well as the political and ethical responsibility of the social sciences in legitimizing right wing and neo-fascist movements in contemporary Europe. Based on my experiences and difficulties conducting fieldwork in Rome with a neo-fascist movement, this paper seeks to shed ethnographic light on the dangers and risks involved in this kind of political ethnography both during the fieldwork and during the "afterlife of ethnography", namely when the anthropologist accepts to diffuse the content of the research outside the "ivory tower" of academia. What happen when the ethnography "never ends", and the "indigenous" come to show their presence in the afterlife? This contribution to the panel will focus on the ethical and political issues involved in this kind of research, from an in depth ethnographic approach.

Paper short abstract:

Conducting research in a German right-wing populist party, I developed the methodological notion of "strategic agonism". Its aim is to help manoeuvre the paradoxes between ethnographic openness and anti-fascist stance an engaged ethnographer of the far right may face in the field.

Paper long abstract:

When I first started researching homosexuality in the far right, I entered my field, the German right-wing populist party "Alternative für Deutschland", with a clear sense of political distance vis-à-vis my interlocutors. The relationships I was about to establish were going to be purely professional, and under no circumstances was I to form friendships in the field. But weren't friendship and appreciation indispensable methodological tools for an ethnographer, especially one informed by feminist engaged anthropology?

During my two years of fieldwork, I realised this research required a methodology of its own. In my paper, I am going to propose the notion of "strategic agonism", inspired by political theorist Chantal Mouffe (2005, 2013). Mouffe proposes the notion of agonism as a political space in which the enemy is recognised as a legitimate one. On the one hand, agonism is opposed to the liberal political space based on compromise and consensus, and, on the other hand, to the political antagonism that distinguishes between friend and enemy, and ultimately seeks to destroy the enemy.

In my own work, my field and I manoeuvred between an agonistic and an antagonistic position towards each other. We had to build a relationship that was based on trust and reciprocity. At the same time, I maintained my political conviction that this was a dangerous field that had to be stopped. However, strategic agonism is not a neat methodological solution for this kind of fieldwork - it keeps alive the tensions that accompany an ethnography of the far right.

Paper short abstract:

This talk explores moral and ethical challenges of doing fieldwork among neo-fascists in Rome as politically highly contested field. It focusses especially on the necessity of building relationships of trust with the interlocutors questioning personal boundaries regarding moral standards.

Paper long abstract:

In the last years, there has been increasing attention in the social sciences on the phenomena of far-right and neo-fascist movements. Anthropologists, too, have been paying special attention to research on people "we don't necessarily like" (Bangstad 2017) and have been focusing on the moral and ethical implications related to this (see Bangstad et al. 2019, Pasieka 2017, Shoshan 2015, Teitelbaum 2019). Reflecting this development, the presentation examines moral and ethical challenges of anthropological research with neo-fascists in Italy.

Based on fieldwork in the neo-fascist scene in Rome, I consider Italian neo-fascism as a political subculture with complex structures. Besides being a politically highly contested and male-dominated field, it also proves to be a community based on family ties and social networks. First and foremost, the presentation will focus on the entanglements resulting from the necessity of building relationships of trust with the interlocutors and situations where personal boundaries regarding moral standards are at stake. Situations of moral and emotional dilemma can be highly challenging in such research settings and demand a permanent reflection of self-positioning in the field and the way of relating to the 'repugnant other'.

Paper short abstract:

The lecture deals with the motif of "cultural cleavage", which is a current issue in the debate about right-wing populism. It will be shown that it is a problematic concept that reproduces right-wing populist narratives. Moreover, it is instructive for the self-reflection of ethnographic research.

Paper long abstract:

Many reactions to the massive rise of right-wing populism in Europe and the USA since 2015 are showing a recurring pattern of interpretation: the pattern of "cultural cleavage". Many commentators are talking about cultural cleavage lines which overlap the social cleavage lines and are used to explain political conflicts: on the one hand, the well-educated "liberal elites", on the other hand, the "losers of globalization". They speak of a new contrast between "cosmopolitans" and "communitarians", between "anywheres" and "somewheres" or between the "academic middle class" and the "new underclass". In the analysis of this discourse, it is striking that the basic diagnosis of society seems to have been taken directly from the right-wing populist repertoire: the idea that the "liberal elites" have lost contact to the "common people" is, after all, part of the core of the populist narrative. From an anthropological perspective, this constellation raises many questions: What is actually negotiated in the new social diagnoses? To what extent does self-criticism of the arrogant "liberal elites" play into the hands of right-wing populism instead of fighting it? And what does the motive of "cultural cleavage" mean for ethnographic research on right-wing populism and right-wing extremism, for which the question of proximity and distance to the field is constitutive? The lecture focuses on the discourse around "cultural cleavage" as a problematic narrative that combines populism and anti-populism and asks about the strategies of complexity reduction that can be found in it. Thus, it also contributes to ethnographic methodology.

Paper short abstract:

Based on field visists and interviews with workers in retail and logistics, we introduce the concept "Cultures of Rejection". It allows for an anthropological investigation into the conditions of acceptability for neo-authoritarian and exclusionary politics in socio-spatial and digital environments.

Paper long abstract:

Research on Populism is proliferating in the current moment. Mainly developed in the fields of philosophy, sociology or political theory, it employs categories such as "Right-Wing Populism", "Authoritarianism", "Neo-Nationalism" or "Neo-Fascism", to describe the current political and cultural conjuncture.

Our paper theoretically introduces and empirically examines the concept of "Cultures of Rejection", which allows us to conduct anthropological research into this conjuncture. The concept aims to analyse everyday practices, discourses and cultural formations based on values, norms and affects that reject a variety of social, political and cultural objects such as immigration, domestic political elites, institutions of civil society and the media, shifting gender relations and European integration. Rather than focusing on voting preferences or political attitudes, the term "Cultures of Rejection" allows us to introduce anthropological perspectives on the socio-cultural conditions of right-wing populism's current success. It draws our attention to "modes of living", linked to experiences of crisis and change.

Drawing on qualitative Interviews and field visits with workers in retail and logistics companies in Austria and Germany, we analyse which dimensions of transformation and crisis both do and do not become meaningful for informants' everyday lives. We show how experiences in the workplace, in socio-spatial and in digital environments shape the conditions of acceptability for far-right, authoritarian or exclusionist politics. Our aim is to conduct an integrated ethnography in order to analyse the intersubjective dimensions of rejection in relation to their spatial surroundings, as well as the conditions for challenging or resisting them.