ABSTRACT

Researching the Far Right brings together researchers from across the humanities and social sciences to provide much needed discussion about the methodological, ethical, political, personal, practical and professional issues and challenges that arise when researching far right parties, their electoral support, and far right protest movements.

Drawing on original research focussing mainly on Europe and North America over the last 30 years, this volume explores in detail the opportunities and challenges associated with using ethnographic, interview-based, quantitative and online research methods to study the far right. These reflections are set within a wider discussion of the evolution of far right studies from a variety of disciplinary viewpoints within the humanities or the social sciences, tracing the key developments and debates that shape the field today.

This volume will be essential reading for students and scholars with an interest in understanding the many manifestations of the far right and cognate movements today. It also offers insight and reflection that is likely to be valuable for a wider range of students and scholars across the humanities and social sciences who are carrying out work of an ethically, politically, personally, practically and professionally challenging nature.

chapter |14 pages

Introduction

Researching the far right

part I|94 pages

Disciplinary overviews

chapter 2|13 pages

Historians and the contemporary far right

To bring (or not to bring) the past into the present?

chapter 4|14 pages

Right thinking

Criminologists on right-wing extremism

chapter 5|18 pages

Getting inside ‘the head’ of the Far Right

Psychological responses to the socio-political context

chapter 6|17 pages

Neo-nationalism and far right studies

Anthropological perspectives

part II|86 pages

Quantitative approaches and online research

chapter 9|17 pages

Challenges and opportunities of social media research

Using Twitter and Facebook to investigate far right discourses

chapter 11|17 pages

Researching far-right hypermedia environments

A case-study of the German online platform einprozent.de

part III|44 pages

Interviewing the far right

chapter 12|15 pages

Methodology matters

Researching the far right

chapter 13|13 pages

Interviewing members of the white power movement in the United States

Reflections on research strategies and challenges of right-wing extremists

part IV|68 pages

Ethnographic studies of the far right

chapter 15|13 pages

An observational study of the Norwegian far right

Some reflections

chapter 16|16 pages

Overcoming racialisation in the field

Practising ethnography on the far right as a researcher of colour

chapter 17|14 pages

Negotiating ethical dilemmas during an ethnographic study of anti-minority activism

A personal reflection on the adoption of a ‘non-dehumanization’ principle

chapter 18|23 pages

Whiteness, class and the ‘communicative community’

A doctoral researcher’s journey to a local political ethnography

part V|46 pages

The significance of place, culture and performance when researching the far right

chapter 20|13 pages

Studying the peripheries

Iconography and embodiment in far right youth subcultures

chapter 21|17 pages

Normalization to the right

Analyzing the micro‐politics of the far-right 1

part VI|30 pages

The intersection of academic and activist positionalities and disseminating far right research

chapter 23|13 pages

From demonization to normalization

Reflecting on far right research