Ideology and Identity

The far right in Europe includes a wide specter of movements, parties, groups and individuals. Despite differences it is possible to find similarities as regards ideologies, worldviews and constructions of identity. Immigration has become a major political issue in most European countries including Norway.

Far right ideologies define immigration as a threat to indigenous identities and far right groups contribute to new ways of defining national identities. Religion and race are being debated and conceptualised in new ways.

Some aspects of ideology and identity formation take increasingly global expressions as a result of new forms of communication and mediatization. At the same time, national contexts and local realities still shape the ideologies and identities of the far right.

Scholars at C-REX study these phenomena in several countries from a variety of different perspectives using both qualitative and quantitative methods.

Key questions

• What is the ideology of contemporary far right groups and individuals?
• What form do these ideologies, worldviews and identities take in different fora?
• What role does religion or stereotypes of religious communities play?
• What role does modern human rights discourse play in the rhetoric of such groups?

Ongoing projects

• Re-bordering the nation: ethnographies of neo-nationalism in an age of migration
• Indian diaspora responses to Islamist extremism and anti-establishment in Brexit Britain and Trump's presidency in the US
• The role of gender in anti-Islamic discourses
• The Origins, Expressions, and Boundaries of anti-Islamic views: Norway, Germany and the UK