In Denmark we eat pork and shake hands! Islam and the anti-Islamic emblems of cultural difference in Danish neo-nationalism

2021 ◽  
pp. 136754942110353
Author(s):  
Martin Lindhardt
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
Symbolic Boundaries ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Shared Identity ◽  
Muslim Immigrants ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
Mixed Gender

This article argues that constructions of Danishness and Danish culture in neo-nationalist right-wing discourse have increasingly become structured around a marked opposition to Islam and Muslim immigrants. My analysis draws on Frederik Barth’s understanding of ethnic identity as constituted through processes of demarcation of boundaries vis-à-vis other groups. In such processes, certain cultural phenomena, both material and immaterial, can be elevated to emblems of cultural difference or symbolic markers of an in-group’s shared identity. The article explores how different phenomena such as freedom of speech, pork, winter swimming/mixed-gender swimming and handshakes have become salient topics of political and public debates about integration and Islam in Denmark. I argue that these phenomena have all become emblematic of an allegedly distinctive Danish culture because they serve the purpose of demarcating symbolic boundaries vis-à-vis Islam.

Countering terrorism or criminalizing curiosity? The troubled history of UK responses to right-wing and other extremism

2021 ◽  
pp. 147377952198934
Author(s):  
Lucia Zedner
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Hate Crime ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
History Of ◽  
Right Wing Extremism

The growth of right-wing extremism, especially where it segues into hate crime and terrorism, poses new challenges for governments, not least because its perpetrators are typically lone actors, often radicalized online. The United Kingdom has struggled to define, tackle or legitimate against extremism, though it already has an extensive array of terrorism-related offences that target expression, encouragement, publication and possession of terrorist material. In 2019, the United Kingdom went further to make viewing terrorist-related material online on a single occasion a crime carrying a 15-year maximum sentence. This article considers whether UK responses to extremism, particularly those that target non-violent extremism, are necessary, proportionate, effective and compliant with fundamental rights. It explores whether criminalizing the curiosity of those who explore radical political ideas constitutes legitimate criminalization or overextends state power and risks chilling effects on freedom of speech, association, academic freedom, journalistic enquiry and informed public debate—all of which are the lifeblood of a liberal democracy.

The Legal Construction of the Notion of Anti-White Racism in France

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-155
Author(s):  
Mathias Möschel
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
White Racism ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Limited Success ◽  
Critical Whiteness ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
Legal Construction

This article focuses on the legal construction of the notion of anti-White racism in France. By analyzing cases litigated under criminal law, it describes how a right-wing NGO has been promoting this notion via a litigation strategy since the late 1980s, initially with only limited success. Public debates in mainstream media in the 2000s and intervention by more traditional antiracist NGOs in courts have since contributed to a creeping acceptance of anti-White racism both within courtrooms and in broader public discourse. This increased recognition of anti-White racism is highly problematic from a critical race and critical Whiteness perspective.

Inoculating the National Public

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nitzan Shoshan
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
National Community ◽  
Multicultural Diversity ◽  
National Question ◽  
Right Wing Extremism ◽  
Neighborhood Level

This chapter focuses on campaigns for the production of positive affective orientations to cultural difference at the neighborhood level. In the wake of reunification, the national crusade against right-wing extremism has supplied one key answer to the national question. The post-reunification resignification of the national community has proceeded under the slogans of tolerance, democracy, open-mindedness, and civil society, which have been promoted as the banners of the war against the peril posed by right-wing extremists. The chapter examines how efforts to mobilize forces to the cause of tolerance and love of multicultural diversity intertwine with the capacity of affective governance to effectively recruit social actors, just as much as they betray its limits. It shows how the fabrication and rebranding of German nationalism has held a fundamental stake in the management of hate.

Jan Blommaert & Jef Verschueren. Debating diversity: Analysing the discourse of tolerance. London: Routledge, 1998. Pp. xiv, 233 pp. Pb $22.99.

2001 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 268-272
Author(s):  
Mary Bucholtz
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Ethnic Studies ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Dutch Version ◽  
Broad Scope ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
Race And Ethnic Studies ◽  
Policies And Practices

Debating diversity, a pragmatic analysis of official liberal discourse concerning migration in Flemish Belgium, is a thorough, topical, and relevant treatment of the widespread yet near-invisible forms of racism that pervade public discourse on cultural difference. Electing not to focus on the far more widely recognized phenomenon of right-wing racism, the authors instead offer a careful critique that makes clear that the left is by no means immune to racism in its policies and practices. Following in the wake of research by a number of other politically oriented discourse analysts, this volume addresses how racism manifests itself in discourse. It therefore serves as an important reminder that ideologies are constructed, and hence contingent and changeable. Because of the broad scope of its inquiry and the relatively accessible methods it employs, it will be of interest to scholars in many fields, including anthropology, communication, political science, race and ethnic studies, and sociology, as well as linguistics. Despite its sometimes overwhelming wealth of detail, it may also appeal to a nonacademic readership, as did the Dutch version of the book when it was first published in Belgium.

“We Should Stop the Islamisation of Europe!”: Islamophobia and Right-Wing Radicalism of the Russian-Speaking Internet Users in Germany

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliia Sablina
Keyword(s):  
Social Cues ◽  
Online Discussions ◽  
Symbolic Boundaries ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Migrant Background ◽  
Online Platforms ◽  
Alternative Für Deutschland ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
The Right ◽  
First Time

Abstract Starting from 2015, the Russian-speaking residents in Germany have expressed their anti-refugee position in the form of rallies and rising voting support for the right-wing populist party, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). Due to the absence of social cues, unlimited space, immediate responses, and minimal censorship online, platforms for communication have reflected the offline mobilization and became the major platforms for the spreadability of discriminatory discourse. This article sets out to investigate why Russian-speaking internet users residing in Germany justify anti-refugee discourse and how they construct the notion of “others.” Based on the netnographic analysis of the chosen online discussions and conducted interviews with its members, this article argues that, with the appearance of new “others,” Russian-speaking migrants have redefined their symbolic boundaries in order to draw the line between the incoming migrants and themselves—people with a migrant background. In many ways, participants of the analyzed discussions employed the politicized civilizational rhetoric that allowed them to redefine existing categorizations. This research explores, for the first time, the reasons lying behind the online populist activity of the Russian-speaking residents in Germany.

scholarly journals Comparing American perceptions of post-Civil War Ku Klux Klan and transnational violence

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 287-304
Author(s):  
Michael Newell
Keyword(s):  
Physical Violence ◽  
Ku Klux Klan ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Ontological Security ◽  
American Government ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
Reconstruction Era ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
State Responses

Recently, public debates have questioned whether or not the American government responds differently to terrorism by white, right-wing, Americans. This article examines a historical period in which similar dynamics were on display in state responses to the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan (KKK), Irish-American Fenians, and anarchists from 1860 to 1920. This history suggests that political officials responded to these groups more on the basis of ideas than their actual levels of violence, including discourses of Americanism shaped by ideology, nativism, and racism. Successful claims to ‘Americanism’ lent the KKK a sense of familiarity that led it to be seen as less of a threat to ontological security, even as it posed a significant threat of physical violence. In contrast, the ideologically subversive and foreign anarchists were responded to more severely, despite being responsible for far fewer deaths and injuries than the KKK. This history suggests that American counter-terrorism has been influenced by factors of racial and national belonging in the past, and provides significant context for the consideration of current debates about responses to right-wing groups.

Populist Mediation of the Pandemic

Populism ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 288-318
Author(s):  
Silas Marker
Keyword(s):  
International Institutions ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Ernesto Laclau ◽  
Muslim Immigrants ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Discursive Approach

Abstract The potential impact of right-wing populist media on society is a matter of growing importance. This paper examines the discourse of the three Danish right-wing populist media Den Korte Avis, NewsSpeek and 24Nyt during the corona crisis in 2020. Using the post-structuralist theoretical framework and discursive approach to populism of Ernesto Laclau, it finds that despite some differences, all three of them articulate Muslim immigrants as a particular problem demanding particular attention in the corona crisis; they accuse the so-called mainstream media of lying or keeping secrets about the crisis, thereby positioning themselves as mediums of the truth; and they accuse the international institutions of lying and utilizing the corona crisis for their own globalist aims.

scholarly journals ”Danmark er danskernes land”: Højrepopulistisk diskurs i Danmark

Politik ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Silas L. Marker
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
New Right ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
People's Party ◽  
The People ◽  
Muslim Immigrants ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
The Right ◽  
Power Position

This paper examines the phenomenon of right-wing populism in Denmark in the year of 2019 by applying qualitative discourse analysis to a sample of central public texts from the right-wing populist parties New Right and The Danish People’s Party. Both parties utilize populist discourse by constructing a popular bloc (“the people”) stabilized by its constitutive outside: The elite and the Muslim immigrants. However, the discourses of the two parties differ from each other insofar as New Right articulates the strongest antagonism between the people and the elite, while The Danish People’s Party downplays this antagonism, most likely because the party has a central power position in Danish politics. 

scholarly journals NO MORE OF THE SAME: the rise and fall of multiculturalism in Brazil

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 197
Author(s):  
Livio Sansone
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Extreme Right ◽  
Cultural Policies ◽  
Sudden Rise ◽  
Global North

The category ethnic identity acquired popularity in the Eighties and Nineties,and since the late Nineties has made inroads in Brazil as well as in the rest ofLatina America. The notion of multiculturalism followed the example, fi rst inpart of the Global North and little by little in our region as from the decade of2000. Here I analyse the sudden rise of popularity of multiculturalism in Braziland the rapid crisis it got into over the last few years, also on account of the rise of a new stock of an extreme right-wing populism.Keywords: Identity, multiculturalism, cultural policies, inequalities.

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