Normalization of the Global Far Right
The ADI lunchtime seminars are an opportunity for a relaxed, informal, monthly discussion of current research projects and recent publications over a 60-minute lunch session. An associated ADI researcher speaks for 20-30 minutes followed by 20-30 minutes of Q&A discussion.
ABSTRACT
In this lunch time seminar, Dr Ulrike M Vieten introduces some of the core arguments of her recently published book, Normalization of the Global Far Right; Pandemic Disruption? (2022[1]), co-authored with Scott Poynting, while focusing on the second chapter.
The underlying argument of the book as well of the chapter is that the boundary between extremist racist perspectives and ‘normal’ entitlement discourses, the latter been regarded as anchored in majority claims and exercised through territorialized democratic rights (e. g. voting), is blurred.
First, Ulrike critically examines the ‘normalization’ of liberal and ‘queer’ modes of lifestyle alongside binary gender regimes while also introducing the notion of ‘normalization’ used in the book. More recent discussions of ‘homonationalism’ (Puar, 2007) and ‘femonationalism’ (Farris, 2017) are of interest here. While secondly reflecting on the terminology of ‘toxic’ (‘toxic masculinity’) current immigration debates and the prevalence of gendered far right movements in some of the European countries are discussed.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dr Ulrike M Vieten is a historical and political sociologist, based at Queen’s University Belfast (UK/ Northern Ireland), with an explicit research focus on the construction and shifts of racialised group boundaries, particularly in Europe. In the past, she carried out comparative studies on the multi-layered belonging and identities of minority EU citizens as well as on experiences of asylum seekers and refugees in Northern Ireland. Further she unwrapped racist discourses of mainstream cosmopolitanism in Europe, and since 2016, publishes widely on gender and racist far right populism. As a feminist interested in intersectionality, she takes inspiration from political activism of black and minority scholars across the globe, also being an active member of the UK academic-activist group, Social Scientists Against the Hostile Environment (SSAHE). Further, Ulrike is Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology.
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