Living right: An Anthropological Study of Far-Right Activism

This project strives to provide an answer to ever more pressing scholarly and political questions: how do we explain the rise of new forms of far-right activism across Europe and what are conceptual and analytical tools that would enable us to understand it better? More specifically, it proposes a study of far- right organizations and movements which have adopted what are traditionally perceived as left-wing forms of civic engagement and which have been recently attracting a growing number of ordinary, socially established citizens. Focusing on far-right communities, comradeships and networks in several European countries, it emphasizes the need to investigate mutual influences between locally grounded and transnational far-right practices and ideologies. The project focuses on very different domains of far-right activism such as charity, environmental causes, heritage preservation, educational activities, tax policies, political protests with the aim to answer the following question: How do different kinds of far-right actors justify, motivate and link local concerns and locally-based community work with transnational activism and, simultaneously, how is a broader and more universal far-right ideology adapted for the purpose of local circumstances? Combining ethnographic research with life stories and a study in history of ideas, the project aims at exploring ideological foundations, moral claims and practices shaping the present-day far-right activism. The anthropological approach is essential for studying worldviews as well as observing actual practices of far-right actors. In so doing, the project calls into question well-established categorizations (West/East, right/left, moral/immoral) and reveals paradoxes inscribed in far-right messages which, against the common label of hate groups, increasingly put forward humanitarian claims and positive visions (of community, society, future). Instead of focusing on extreme right political parties or far-right subcultures, the topics dominating in the current scholarship, it will investigate the rightwing appeal to civic activism and community engagement among average, respectable citizens. As such, the project aims to addresses existing gaps in the literature, to develop a more appropriate terminology to define the phenomena at hand, and to constitute a critical methodological and theoretical contribution to the social sciences.

The goal of this project was to provide an answer to ever more pressing scholarly and political questions: how do we explain the rise of new forms of far-right activism across Europe and what are conceptual and analytical tools that would enable us to understand it better? In order to address these questions, the PI carried out a study of several far-right movements which have adopted what are traditionally perceived as "left-wing" forms of civic engagement and which had been recently attracting a growing number of "ordinary," socially established citizens. Moreover, the project emphasized the necessity to investigate mutual influences between locally grounded and transnational far-right practices and ideologies. The project focused on very different domains of far-right activism - such as charity, environmental causes, heritage preservation, educational activities, cultural events, political protests - with the aim to answer the following question: How do different kinds of far-right actors justify, motivate and link local concerns and locally-based community-work with transnational activism and, simultaneously, how is a broader and more universal far-right ideology adapted for the purpose of local circumstances? The PI conducted her research in Italy, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, focusing on both the activities different movements carry out in their countries and on their transnational exchanges and networking. Combining ethnographic research with interviews and a study in history of ideas, the project explored ideological foundations, moral claims and practices shaping the present-day far-right activism. The project has demonstrated that the anthropological approach is essential for studying worldviews as well as observing actual practices of far-right actors as it allows to call into question well-established categorizations (West/East, right/left, moral/immoral) and reveals paradoxes inscribed in the far-right activism. First, talks with youth far-right activists show that young people often join far-right groups not because they hold "far-right views" but because they search for platform of action, for community, or because they are disappointed with other political options. It is within the far-right movements that their ideas crystalize. Second, the fact these people often find inspiration in fascism, does not mean that they want to bring fascism back; rather, it is important to ask what they find inspiring in fascism and why fascism provides an answer to their concerns? And third, as to the paradox of "transnational nationalism," the project shows that the transnational networking proves the subordination of the transnational context to the national one: activists "borrow" and "learn" from the former to strengthen the latter. All in all, the project helped to address existing gaps in literature (so far dominated by political science) and prompted a reflection on a more appropriate terminology to define the phenomena at hand. Finally, it inspired discussions on methodology and theory within anthropology.