scholarly journals Immigration, Race, and Nation in the UK: The Politics of Belonging on Twitter

2021 ◽  
pp. 136078042110299
Author(s):  
Bindi V Shah ◽  
Jessica Ogden
Keyword(s):  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Symbolic Boundaries ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Temporal Proximity ◽  
Counter Narrative ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
Immigration Attitudes ◽  
National Boundaries ◽  
The Uk

At a time of rising right-wing populism, the heightened political salience of immigration as an issue is linked to conceptions of ‘the national’. In this article, we analyse tweets from non-elites, defined as isolated users with low network influence, engaged in a ‘conversation’ about migration on Twitter. We investigate the values embedded in these attitudes, and what these tell us about constructions and contestations of the symbolic boundaries of the nation among ordinary people. Our corpus includes tweets posted in temporal proximity to the lifting of transitional controls on Romanian and Bulgarian migrants in the UK (1 October 2013 to 1 March 2014). Thematic analysis reveals a cohesive set of anti-immigrant or anti-immigration sentiments linked to UKIP and that express an exclusionary nationalism based on assumptions about race, ‘whiteness’ and entitlement. Also evident is a counter-narrative of pro-immigration sentiments that draw on multiple and sometimes contradictory values. Some of these values contest racialised understandings of the nation but do not coalesce in ways to disrupt the dominance of right-wing anti-immigrant sentiments on Twitter. Our findings demonstrate the importance of investigating values embedded in both anti and pro-immigration attitudes among non-elites and what these values indicate about the possibilities of re-framing migration debates among non-elites in ways that construct more inclusive symbolic national boundaries. In addition, in using the networked properties of Twitter engagement to identify non-elite users, we make a methodological contribution to scholarship on immigration attitudes.

Exit from Within

2020 ◽  
pp. 137-158
Author(s):  
Alexander Cooley ◽  
Daniel Nexon
Keyword(s):  
Republican Party ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
The European Union ◽  
American System ◽  
The Core ◽  
System P ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
Media Environments ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Political Success

Right-wing illiberal movements have enjoyed a run of political success. This manifests in Trump’s capture of the Republican Party and subsequent election; the number of illiberal, right-wing parties that hold or share power in Europe; and the largely right-wing coalition that successfully pushed for the UK to trigger withdrawal from the European Union—and thus sent one of the most stalwart, stable great-power supporters of liberal order and the American system into political chaos. This chapter explores how right-wing populism has emerged as a significant counter-order movement, and how the Kremlin has sought to position itself as a broker among wings of the transnational right. These movements also benefit from highly polarized societies, and piggyback on media environments that cultivate polarization. Because counter-order movements within the core are a major way that hegemonic systems collapse or international orders change, these developments matter to the fate of the American system.

Reporting the unsayable: Scandalous talk by right-wing populist politicians and the challenge for journalism

Journalism ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 146488492110017
Author(s):  
Mats Ekström ◽  
Marianna Patrona ◽  
Joanna Thornborrow
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
News Media ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Analytic Approach ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Reporting Practices ◽  
Commercial Networks ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
The Uk

This paper focuses on the moral work of journalism as displayed and enacted in the reporting practices used in news coverage of scandalous talk by right-wing populist (RWP) politicians. Using a qualitative discourse-analytic approach, we analyze a set of cases of journalistic framing of RWP talk recently circulating in Sweden, Greece, France and the UK, and examine ways in which anti-democratic or racist talk is represented within print, online and broadcast news media. We show how the complex dynamics of different kinds of discursive framing of scandalous talk construct boundaries between right and wrong which contribute to processes of normalising populist discourses and agendas. Moreover, we call attention to the challenge that this poses for contemporary journalism both within public service and commercial networks, as reporting on right-wing populism involves a balancing act between disparate constraints and exigencies of journalism.

scholarly journals INEQUALITY AND RIGHT-WING POPULISM

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lali Kapanadze ◽  
◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Phenomenon ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
Remote Past ◽  
People Today

According to Cambridge dictionary, in 2017 the most popular word was Populism. What is Populism? – Is it achievement of our era, or its roots comes from our remote past? According to scientific research, populism existed in ancient Roman period as an ideological political movement known as the Populist Party. It expressed the interests of ordinary people. Today populism is a natural phenomenon of Democratic political regimes. Populist perception is a special democratic component of political culture, that is realized by the population who are involved in political movements. The amplitude of its usage is so diverse that it’s difficult to find an exact scientific definition. Today populism is a main political phenomenon and is mainly used during pre-election periods, political debates and with the purpose of convincing or manipulating consciousness of society. In addition, political leaders often use aggressive national-populist rhetoric.

scholarly journals Radicalising citizenship education

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-34
Author(s):  
Stuart Moir ◽  
Jim Crowther
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Citizenship Education ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Democratic Life ◽  
The Uk

Democracy faces two key threats today. The first is evident in the growth of authoritarian, right-wing, populism which is evident in a number of European countries and beyond. The second has been the un- dermining of democratic life by neoliberalism. Liberal democracy has aided the latter by the separation of economics from politics and the focus on the individual at the expense of the public sector and the common good. At the same time, some of the virtues of liberal democracy – the separation of powers, for example – are threatened by authoritarianism. We argue the importance of a critical engagement with current versions of democracy by drawing on a more participatory and active democratic tradition. This has significant implications for how we view citizenship and citizenship education. The dominant ver- sion of citizenship education in Scotland and the UK (possibly in Europe too) embodies a ‘minimalist’ model of citizenship through a curriculum for taking personal responsibility. This is inadequate for the challenge democracy faces. We argue the need to ground citizenship education in more radical soil, to nurture a critically engaged and active citizenry capable of challenging the democratic threats of right- wing populism and neoliberal subjectivity.

scholarly journals Responses of European Mainstream to Right-Wing Populism Challenges from the Perspective of the Resilience Concept: Case of the United Kingdom

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-70
Author(s):  
Sergei A. Shein
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Political System ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Strategic Responses ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
British Case ◽  
The Uk

The article explores how European political mainstream responds to the challenges of right-wing populism and how it effects the resilience of the political system. The British case serves as the empirical material for the article. Focusing on the concept of resilience as a quality of a political system to respond and adapt itself to internal challenges, we use the classification of mainstream strategic responses developed by W. Downs and the analytical tools of historical insti- tutionalism. The article investigates mainstream (Conservative and Labor) strategic responses to the challenges of right-wing populism (United Kingdom Independence Party, UKIP) in the UK. The research concludes that the political mainstream is moving from ignoring strategies to mixed strategies, such as cooptation of the UKIP’s program with elements of political and institutional isolation. Such strategies are effective from the electoral point of view, however, they may be fraught with “unintended consequences” affecting the resilience of the whole political system.

scholarly journals Affect and critique: A politics of boredom*

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-217
Author(s):  
Ben Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Stuart Hall ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
Humanities And Social Sciences ◽  
The Uk

What are the politics of boredom? And how should we relate to boredom? In this paper, I explore these questions through cases where the disaffection and restlessness of boredom have become a matter of concern in the UK and USA at the junctures between Fordism and neoliberalism, and amid today’s resurgence of right-wing populism. I argue that what repeats across the critique of the ‘ordinary ordinariness’ of Fordism, the neoliberal counterrevolution and today’s right-wing populism is a ‘promise of intensity’ – the promise that life will feel eventful and boredom will be absent. As I make this argument, I reflect on the role of critique in the context of the multiplication of modes of inquiry that has accompanied the interest in affect across the humanities and social sciences. Rejecting the dismissal of critique in some affect-related work, I advocate for and exemplify a type of ‘diagnostic critique’ based on the practice of conjunctural analysis as pioneered by Stuart Hall and colleagues.

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