ABSTRACT
The Politics of Replacement explores current demographic conspiracy theories and their entanglement with different forms of racism and exclusionary politics such as sexism.
The book focuses on population replacement conspiracy theories, that is, those imaginaries and discourses centered on the idea that the national population is under threat of being overtaken or even wiped out by those considered as “alien” to the nation and that this is the result of concerted efforts by “elites”. Replacement conspiracy theories are on the rise again: from Eurabia fantasies to Renaud Camus’ The Great Replacement, white supremacist discourses are thriving and increasingly broadcasting in mainstream venues. To account for their rise and spread, this edited volume brings together research on various dimensions of population replacement conspiracy theories: different theoretical and methodological approaches, different social scientific and humanities (inter)disciplinary backgrounds, different geographical case studies (across Europe, North America, Southeast Asia, and Oceania), different time periods (medieval archives, colonial archives, Nazi archives, postcolonial migrations, post-9/11), and different forms of racialization and racisms (Islamophobia, antisemitism, racism against migrants and refugees). It also explores the entanglement of population replacement discourse with gendered violence. The book is organized into four sections: (1) exploring the historical background of the current rise of demographic conspiracy theories; (2) tracing the (neoliberal) governmentalities in and through which replacement discourse operates; (3) analyzing the particularly intense focus on the threat of Muslims in contemporary replacement conspiracy theories, and (4) investigating the connection between replacement conspiracies, gender, and violence.
This title is essential reading for scholars, journalists, and activists interested in the contemporary far right, conspiracy theories, and racisms.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|86 pages
Genealogies of Replacement
chapter 1|14 pages
Malthusian Fears in Current Migration Debates
chapter 2|14 pages
Das Boot ist voll, The Boat is Full
chapter 3|15 pages
Birth Rates and the Cleansing of Impure Blood
part II|85 pages
Technologies of Replacement
chapter 7|16 pages
Colonial Census and Saffron Demography
chapter 9|23 pages
The Affordances of Replacement Narratives
chapter 10|18 pages
Mainstreaming the Great Replacement
chapter 11|12 pages
From Clashing Civilizations to the Replacement of Populations
part III|50 pages
Islamophobia and Replacement
chapter 13|11 pages
The Gastro-Politics of Replacement
chapter 14|12 pages
Striving for Transparency
chapter 15|12 pages
The Great Supersession
part IV|43 pages
The Gendered Violence of Replacement