Link to join the webinar: https://uio.zoom.us/j/68424625426
The conceptualisation of the far right as a social movement and the corresponding shift in focus from political parties to movement-based organisations necessitates a methodological recalibration. This talk focuses on the method of ethnography as a vital interpretive approach for studying the far right from a social movement perspective. Drawing from established and emerging anthropological theory and ethnographic practice, I argue that such an approach can be fruitfully applied to key debates in contemporary far-right studies. Specifically, ethnographic methods offer critical insights into both enduring and novel questions such as patterns of individual involvement, everyday practices, intra-movement dynamics, processes of Europeanisation and transnationalisation, the mainstreaming of far-right actors and ideologies, and the ethics of studying antidemocratic actors.
The presentation proposes three avenues to advance this agenda: first, centring ethnography within the methodological canon of far-right scholarship; second, drawing on concepts like ‘multi-sited’ and ‘digital’ ethnography to navigate transnational and hybrid fields; and third, extending the ethical insights of critical ethnography to guide reflexive and responsible scholarship on far-right movements.
Sabine Volk is an associate research assistant at IRex in the Department of Political Actors and Ideologies. From 2026 to 2028, she will also work as an EU-funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Helsinki. Her research focuses on right-wing extremist actors such as political parties, movement organisations and networks; exclusionary ideologies and right-wing extremist worldviews, especially in the area of gender politics and historical politics; and the commonplace of extreme right-wing actors and ideologies.
The webinar series on Researching the Far Right: Methods and Ethics is co-organized by C-REX and the Canadian Network for Research on Security, Extremism and Society (CANSES). The series aims to facilitate a much needed discussion about the methodological, ethical, political, practical and professional challenges that arise when researching the far right.
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