RadicalNorm From the Radical to the Norm: The Construction of Normalcy Through Aesthetics in Far-Right Culture

Duration
01.01.2024–31.12.2025

This project studies the aesthetics of the extreme-right, and how their aesthetics and cultural production (namely music, fashion, and online imagery) help normalize their views.

Contact

Much research has been dedicated to the question of why people support, and ultimately join, far-right movements. People are attracted for many reasons: one of the major reasons being an attraction to the subculture surrounding the far-right movement, rather than the ideologies themselves. This means that people find the aesthetics, the music, activities, and general culture of the movement so attractive that they join and ultimately start to believe in their ideas. The Radical-Norm project takes this idea one step further, looking at how the far-right has managed to normalize some of its concepts and beliefs in mainstream society. The project will aim to do this by looking at the aesthetics and cultural production of the movement from the point of view of some main themes: historical narratives, gender, spirituality (including religion), and the environment (including nature and animals). Through this, we hope to gain a better understanding of how hateful movements can influence everyday society.

The project will include five European countries: Hungary, Germany, Italy, Norway, and one other.

The project is led by Katherine Kondor (Senior Researcher).

Questions asked in the project include:

  • What are the aesthetics of far-right and extreme-right music?
  • What are the aesthetics of extreme-right fashion?
  • What are the aesthetics of images used by the extreme right online?
  • How are the themes of history, gender, spirituality, and nature represented in extreme-right aesthetics?
  • How does the extreme right use aesthetics and cultural production to normalize their views?Questions asked in the project include:
  • What are the aesthetics of far-right and extreme-right music?
  • What are the aesthetics of extreme-right fashion?
  • What are the aesthetics of images used by the extreme right online?
  • How are the themes of history, gender, spirituality, and nature represented in extreme-right aesthetics?
  • How does the extreme right use aesthetics and cultural production to normalize their views?

Read more on the project website

Participants

  • Picture of Katherine Kondor
    Katherine Kondor Project leader
  • Celestine S. Kunkeler
  • Picture of Greta Jasser
    Greta Jasser Institute for Democracy and Civil Society, Amadeu Antonio Foundation
  • Ferrarini Fabio University of Fortaleza
  • Nike Døving Research assistant
  • David Carrillo Rangel Research assistant

Funding

Funded by The Research Council of Norway

Project number: 104910101

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Published Jan. 16, 2025 2:35 PM - Last modified Feb. 20, 2026 12:47 PM