Radicalization and Disengagement in Neo-Nazi Movements: Social Psychological Perspectives
... Conspiracy theories (CTs) lie at the heart of the neo-Nazi movement. The conspiratorial mindset of the Nordic resistance movement can be examined through an investigation into three important and interlinked 'theories' (Mattsson & Johansson, 2022). The most central CT that distinguishes the Nordic resistance movement from other political movements is the belief in a Jewish world conspiracy that more or less explains everything. ...
This article explores the role of conspiracy theories in the neo-Nazi movement. The focal points of the study are the core conspiracy theories within the movement and the interface with other conspiracy theories of less ideological importance such as ‘Big Pharma.’ The study is based on interviews with six active neo-Nazis in the context of the Swedish-dominated Nordic resistance movement. The informants were all senior in the movement with long experience as neo-Nazi officials. In addition, the empirical material also depicts a unique internal strategy document from the movement that instructs all activists on how to talk and how to avoid talking about various forms of conspiracy theories. The study shows that conspiracy theories, such as the claim of a ‘great replacement’ and ‘the deep state,’ serve as a doxa for the movement. This doxa is not the consequence of the movement but rather a precondition for it.
While a growing body of evidence suggests that the Internet is a key facilitator of violent extremism, research in this area has rarely incorporated former extremists’ experiences with the Internet when they were involved in violent extremism. To address this gap, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 Canadian former right-wing extremists who were involved in violent racist skinhead groups, with interview questions provided by 30 Canadian law enforcement officials and 10 community activists. Participants were asked about their use of the Internet and the connection between their on- and offline worlds during their involvement in the violent right-wing extremist movement. Overall, our study findings highlight the interplay between the Internet and violent extremism as well as the interactions between the on- and offline worlds of violent extremists. We conclude with a discussion of study limitations and avenues for future research.
As a conspiracy promoted by the far-right, Cultural Marxism has gained ground over the past quarter century. In its dominant iteration, the US-originating conspiracy holds that a small group of Marxist critical theorists have conspired to destroy Western civilisation by taking over key cultural institutions. Yet what does such a conspiracy look like in a transnational context – and how are such conspiracy theories adapted for local use? In this article, we trace Cultural Marxism’s use and function in Australia’s recent culture wars, asking when, where and in what contexts the conspiracy is invoked in the Australian political and media landscape. Our analysis examines the ways in which Cultural Marxism has moved from the ‘fringe’ to the ‘mainstream’, revealing the porous nature of divisions on the contemporary Australian right as well as differences between ‘old’ and ‘new’ right. We pay particular attention to the localised use of the conspiracy in the ‘Safe Schools’ controversy of 2016–2017, whereby Cultural Marxist tropes were imbued with local concerns about sexuality and gender issues. The article provides an important illustration and analysis of the ways in which transnational conspiracy theories and tropes of the far-right can be translated, adapted and used in different national contexts.
Research pays little attention to the diverse roles individuals hold within terrorism. This limits our understanding of the varied experiences of the terrorist and their implications. This study examines how a terrorist’s role(s) influence the likelihood of and reasons for disengagement. Using data from autobiographies and in-person interviews with former terrorists, we find that role conflict and role strain increase the probability of disengagement. We show those in certain roles, especially leadership and violent roles, incur greater sunk costs and possess fewer alternatives making exit less likely. Finally, certain roles are associated with the experience of different push/pull factors for disengagement.
While it has become increasingly common for researchers, practitioners and policymakers to draw from the insights of former extremists to combat violent extremism, overlooked in this evolving space has been an in-depth look at how formers perceive such efforts. To address this gap, interviews were conducted with 10 Canadian former right-wing extremists based on a series of questions provided by 30 Canadian law enforcement officials and 10 community activists. Overall, formers suggest that combating violent extremism requires a multidimensional response, largely consisting of support from parents and families, teachers and educators, law enforcement officials, and other credible formers.
The purpose of this study is to contribute to the oral history of disengagement processes of former neo-Nazis in Sweden. The main aim is to take a holistic approach to their narratives. This means that these narratives need to be placed in relation to significant others – such as teachers, parents, and siblings – in order to contextualize the individual stories and pathways and also analyze push and pull factors in a broader context. Although there is ample evidence for the importance pro-social relationship for disengagement, most studies have focused exclusively on the individual stories. This one-sided focus could contribute to the construction of a highly individualized narrative of disengagement processes. Research has shown that disengagement from extremist movements is often preceded by individuals’ disillusionment with the movement, but there is also a need for the individual to reconnect with others outside the movement in order to share his or her doubts. There is, however, scarce research on how this process of interaction with significant outsiders who are present during both the radicalization and disengagement process can be understood. The empirical material of this study consists of two case studies. Each case story contains a condensed narrative of the person’s own perception of push and pull factors leading into the neo-Nazi movement in Sweden and starting a disengagement process. In one case, disengagement was successful, in the other it was not. In addition to these individual narratives, a number of voices of significant others are added and analyzed to contextualize each pathway. The results show that disengagement can be understood as a combination of fateful moments and “interventions” by significant others. The non-judgmental attitudes among these significant others are rooted in their lived experiences of handling individuals grievances.
This seminal work (published in 1997) was one of the first to study disengagement and exit processes from racist and extreme right groups, based on extensive interviews with participants who were in different stages of disengagement. This study provided the scientific basis for the very first Exit project, established by the author in collaboration with an NGO in Norway in 1996-97. This inspired similar Exit projects in Sweden and Finland, and later in Germany and several other countries.
Scholarly efforts to understand conspiracy theories have grown significantly in recent years, and there is now a broad and interdisciplinary literature. In reviewing this body of work, we ask three specific questions. First, what factors are associated with conspiracy beliefs? Our review of the literature shows that conspiracy beliefs result from a range of psychological, political, and social factors. Next, how are conspiracy theories communicated? Here, we explain how conspiracy theories are shared among individuals and spread through traditional and social media platforms. Next, what are the societal risks and rewards associated with conspiracy theories? By focusing on politics and science, we argue that conspiracy theories do more harm than good. We conclude by suggesting several promising avenues for future research.
Since 1960, the lives of young people in their late teens and twenties have changed so dramatically that a new stage of life has developed. In his provocative work, Jeffrey Jensen Arnett has identified the period of emerging adulthood as distinct from both the adolescence that precedes it and the young adulthood that comes in its wake. Arnett's new theory has created an entire thriving field of research due to his book that launched the field, Emerging Adulthood.
On the 10th Anniversary of the publication of his groundbreaking work, the second edition of Emerging Adulthood fully updates and expands Arnett's findings and includes brand new chapters on media use, social class issues, and the distinctive problems of this life stage. Merging stories from the lives of emerging adults themselves with decades of research, Arnett covers a wide range of other topics as well, including love and sex, relationships with parents, experiences at college and work, and views of what it means to be an adult. As the nature of growing up and the meaning of adulthood further evolve, Emerging Adulthood will continue to be essential reading for understanding ages 18-29.
The globally reported riots in the poor high-rise suburbs of Sweden’s metropolitan districts in 2013 were stark manifestations of the increased social and economic inequality of the past 30 years. Large groups of young adults acted out their unarticulated claims for social justice. In the light of the riots, it is relevant to ask whether any trace of resistance or protest can be found in the compulsory school where the young people from these neighbourhoods spend their days. The ethnography sampled for the article comes from two public schools in two poor, multi-ethnic, high-rise neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Gothenburg. The article argues that the theoretical and methodological concepts and perspectives developed by Willis still is of crucial importance to any investigation aimed at understanding the presence or absence of resistance in contemporary Swedish schools.
Stigma is not a self-evident phenomenon but like all concepts has a history. The conceptual understanding of stigma which underpins most sociological research has its roots in the ground-breaking account penned by Erving Goffman in his best-selling book Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity (1963). In the 50 years since its publication, Goffman’s account of stigma has proved a productive concept, in terms of furthering research on social stigma and its effects, on widening public understandings of stigma, and in the development of anti-stigma campaigns. However, this introductory article argues that the conceptual understanding of stigma inherited from Goffman, along with the use of micro-sociological and/or psychological research methods in stigma research, often side-lines questions about where stigma is produced, by whom and for what purposes. As Simon Parker and Robert Aggleton argue, what is frequently missing is social and political questions, such as ‘how stigma is used by individuals, communities and the state to produce and reproduce social inequality’. This article expands on Parker and Aggleton’s critique of the limitations of existing conceptual understandings of stigma, through an examination of the anti-stigma campaign Heads Together. This high-profile campaign launched in 2016 seeks to ‘end the stigma around mental health’ and is fronted by members of the British Royal Family. By thinking critically with and about this campaign, this article seeks to both delineate the limitations of existing conceptual understandings of stigma and to begin to develop a supplementary account of how stigma functions as a form of power. We argue that in order to grasp the role and function of stigma in society, scholarship must develop a richer and fuller understanding of stigma as a cultural and political economy. The final part of this introduction details the articles to follow, and the contribution they collectively make to the project of rethinking the sociology of stigma. This collection has been specifically motivated by: (1) how reconceptualising stigma might assist in developing better understandings of pressing contemporary problems of social decomposition, inequality and injustice; (2) a concern to decolonise the discipline of sociology by interrogating its major theorists and concepts; and (3) a desire to put class struggle and racism at the centre of understandings of stigma as a classificatory form of power.
Europe has seen an increase of women joining or sympathizing with the terrorist organization ISIS. These women are often considered victims and passive agents, but their threat should not be underestimated. Effective counter-measures are essential, especially now the so-called caliphate is in decline and many females want to return home. Exit programmes to deradicalize, disengage, reintegrate or rehabilitate are often part of a broader programme to prevent and counter violent extremism (CVE). Little is known about the effectiveness of such exit programmes, in particular in relation to female violent extremism. Drawing on municipal exit programmes in the Netherlands as a case study, the article researches how realistic evaluation can be used to measure the effectiveness of exit programmes. It also shows that the realistic evaluation method is beneficial for further theory development on the phenomenon of female violent extremism.
White racist serial killer Peter Mangs is the most politically conscious lone wolf terrorist Sweden has seen thus far. Adopting the tactics of Joseph Paul Franklin to the city of Malmö, Mangs committed at least three murders and twelve murder attempts between 2003 and 2010. Well-versed in white power literature and leaderless resistance tactics, Mangs aimed at “igniting a race war” by shooting Black, Muslim, and Roma citizens to amplify racialized tensions, grievances, and anxieties in the increasingly segregated city. Yet, Mangs is not included in any database of single-actor terrorism, as these depend on how a perpetrator or incident is defined by the police, the courts, and the media. In this case, Mangs’ political motives were ignored by everyone, except by people in the targeted communities and the white racist milieu. This fact highlights the importance of ethnographic methods to terrorism studies. Based on ten three-hour interviews with Mangs, an analysis of his own political writings, previously not known to the public, interviews with Mangs’ victims, their friends and relatives, and extensive fieldwork in Malmö among activists across the political spectrum, including people who hailed Mangs’ deeds as heroic, this essay explores the impact of urban lone wolf terrorism.
Few issues have garnered as much attention in recent years as the topic of violent extremism (VE). Although substantial attention has been devoted to investigating the radicalization process, few scholars have examined the obstacles that hinder VE radicalization. Based on indepth life history interviews, the current study examines five types of barriers that hinder radicalization toward mass casualty violence (MCV): mass casualty violence as counter-productive; preferences toward interpersonal violence; changes in focus and availability; internal organizational conflict; and moral apprehension. In general, we address each barrier’s unique contribution to hindering the likelihood of MCV. Finally, we discuss how our findings could be used as part of initiatives aimed at countering violent extremism (CVE).
This article explores the complexities of the interplay between structural and agentic changes in 21 young offenders' lives as they start to stop offending. The young people's ability to desist from crime was dependent upon their engagement with a 'hook for change', their development of prosocial relationships and 'knifing off' of elements of their offending past, the extent of their identity change, and their confidence about desistance. Desistance was less likely in the absence of a 'hook' and where offenders were running a 'condemnation script'. The study challenges previous research that argues that desistance from crime in adolescence is unlikely.
EU member-states target families in order to prevent or counter radicalization. However, there is little empirical knowledge to confirm that parents influence the radicalization and de-radicalization process. Because there is little known about the role that parents play in radicalization and de-radicalization, this qualitative study explored the family dynamics in these processes together with 11 former radicals and their families. The study consists of 21 in-depth interviews with Dutch former radicals and their family members and it was found that formers and their families do not recognize a direct influence of parents on radicalization and de-radicalization. However, a more indirect influence seems to be in place: a (problematic) family situation may influence the radicalization process and family support can possibly play a role in de-radicalization. It is also stressed that parents have need for knowledge about the different ideologies and for tools on how to respond to their children’s radicalization. Family support programs could focus on these lacunas in order to help families counter radicalization.
The process of leaving deeply meaningful and embodied identities can be experienced as a struggle against addiction, with continuing cognitive, emotional, and physiological responses that are involuntary, unwanted, and triggered by environmental factors. Using data derived from a unique set of in-depth life history interviews with 89 former U.S. white supremacists, as well as theories derived from recent advances in cognitive sociology, we examine how a rejected identity can persist despite a desire to change. Disengagement from white supremacy is characterized by substantial lingering effects that subjects describe as addiction. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of identity residual for understanding how people leave and for theories of the self.
This article examines visual posters and symbols constructed and circulated transnationally by various political actors to mobilize contentious politics on the issues of immigration and citizenship. Following right-wing mobilizations focusing on the Syrian refugee crisis, immigration has become one of the most contentious political issues in Western Europe. Right-wing populist political parties have used provocative visual posters depicting immigrants or refugees as ‘criminal foreigners’ or a ‘threat to the nation’, in some countries and contexts conflating the image of the immigrant with that of the Islamist terrorist. This article explores the transnational dynamics of visual mobilization by comparing the translation of right-wing nationalist with left-wing, cosmopolitan visual campaigns on the issue of immigration in Western Europe. The author first traces the crosscultural translation and sharing of an anti-immigrant poster created by the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), a right-wing political party, inspiring different extremist as well as populist right-wing parties and grassroots activists in several other European countries. She then explores how left-libertarian social movements try to break racist stereotypes of immigrants. While right-wing political activists create a shared stereotypical image of immigrants as foes of an imaginary ethnonationalist citizenship, left-wing counter-images construct a more complex and nuanced imagery of citizenship and cultural diversity in Europe. The findings show the challenges of progressive activists’ attempts to translate cosmopolitan images of citizenship across different national and linguistic contexts in contrast to the right wing’s rapid and effective instrumentalizing and translating of denigrating images of minorities in different contexts.
Using bodybuilders and skinheads/neo-Nazis as two rather diverse examples of subcultures, the present study theoretically explores our understanding of subculture and common culture. The study aims to explore how the concept of subculture can be used analytically in relation to processes of normalization and marginalization. The focus is on the historical, symbolic, and biographical relation between the subculture, the subcultural response, and sociopolitical transformations in society and culture. We are interested in understanding the processes through which, for example, bodybuilding has moved back and forth, over time, between a subcultural position and a more common fitness culture. In parallel to this, we are also interested in how subcultures centered on skinheads, neo-Nazis, and right-wing extremists influence and are connected to more general political transformations and opinions in contemporary society, blurring the distinction between subculture and common culture. The results indicate a complex relation between subcultures and the mainstreaming of certain values, opinions, and practices.
Research on disengagement from violent extremism is an emerging field of inquiry. As compared to the related field of radicalization, there have been fewer studies of disengagement. Further, little effort has been made to conduct a large scale, systematic review of what is currently known about disengagement from violent extremism. This type of meta-literature assessment can play an important role in terms of informing strategies and programs designed to facilitate exit. To help fill this gap, our project systematically examines the disengagement literature to determine the range and frequency of various exit factors identified in previous studies. We also rely on parallel literatures such as exit from street gangs, mainstream religious groups, cults, and nonviolent social movements to build a robust sample of studies that assess the extent to which group exit factors may generalize across different populations.
This article presents a case study of one individual's trajectory through violent right-wing extremism in the USA. Drawing on an in-depth in-person interview conducted with ‘Sarah', we trace the influences affecting the nature and extent of her involvement, engagement and disengagement. We focus on delineating the complexity of Sarah's disengagement from violent extremism. Her account supports several claims in the literature. First, there is rarely any single cause associated with individual disengagement. Rather, the phenomenon is a dynamic process shaped by a multitude of interacting push/pull factors, sunk costs and the perceived availability of alternatives outside the group. Second, as this case illustrates, prison affords physical separation from the violent extremist group and with it, time to reflect which may be critical to sustaining disengagement. Third, this account illustrates how de-radicalization may be a long-term process, and may in some cases supersede rather than precede one's exit, even where disillusionment precedes disengagement. Finally, Sarah's case suggests the successful adoption of a new social role and sense of identity as a potentially important protective factor in reducing the risk of re-engagement.
'This paper critiques the claim that terrorists can be profiled – that is to say that terrorists possess distinguishable attributes that can be conceivably identified by an observer. In doing so, the most prominent profiling parameters - racial, gender, age, pathological, psychological and socioeconomic – are investigated. The above approaches are found to have little to no applied value in identifying terrorists from a societal population. The dominant criticisms of these methods emphasise their crude reductionism, an absence of internal and external validity, and their lack of practical application. Current evidence indicates that the profiling of terrorists is a futile venture.'
The current paper examines the extent to which the pursuit of status, the social construction of masculinity and violence
are linked. The main argument suggests that in a world where inmates have only the most limited forms of economic and political
power, social status as a resource assumes far greater significance. The acquisition of status, though, depends upon the ability
to navigate successfully the competition linked to securing one’s reputation as a ‘real man’. Milner’s (1994; 2004) theory of status relations within a resource structuralism framework offers an innovative explanatory strategy for understanding
prison violence in the context of hegemonic masculinity. The paper offers exemplars from the comparative literature on prison
violence to help illustrate the logic of the approach. The final section identifies a series of theoretical propositions derived
from the general theory that purport to explain prison violence cross-culturally.
The topic of hate group membership and radicalization toward extremist ideologies has received substantial attention in recent years; however, relatively less is known about the process of disengagement and deradicalization. This is troubling because the number of hate groups in the United States has increased and some are known to engage in a variety of violent and criminal behavior. This exploratory study relies on life history interviews with 34 former white supremacists, one of the oldest types of hate groups in the United States, to examine the process of exit from these groups. Findings suggest that exiting is a multifaceted process with a variety of factors that influence a person’s decision to leave. The results also highlight a number of difficulties associated with exiting such as ongoing emotions of guilt, ideological relapse, and maintaining social ties with current members of the white supremacist movement.
The background for this paper is the debate over what role mental illness plays in radicalization to violent extremism. While one camp points to cases of abnormal functioning of perpetrators, another argues that normal psychological mechanisms are central. Through a review of these perspectives, it becomes clear that mental illness cannot be ruled out as an epi‐phenomenon, but is not a necessary condition either. The paper draws on work in psychiatric nosology on dimensional and categorical conceptions of illness and argues that the perspectives in this literature reflect a categorical approach to normal and abnormal functioning. Under a dimensional perspective, findings converge. The paper concludes by showing how this new dimensional approach to the role of mental illness in radicalization has implications for the design of risk assessment tools and leads to the recommendation for stronger inter‐agency cooperation between mental health professionals, social services, and police and intelligence services.
By the time Matthias was in seventh grade, he felt he'd better belong to some group, lest he be alone and vulnerable. The punks and anarchists were identifiable by their tattoos and hairstyles and music. But it was the skinheads who captured his imagination. They had great parties, and everyone seemed afraid of them. "They really represented what it meant to be a strong man," he said. What draws young men into violent extremist groups? What are the ideologies that inspire them to join? And what are the emotional bonds forged that make it difficult to leave, even when they want to? Having conducted in-depth interviews with ex-white nationalists and neo-Nazis in the United States, as well as ex-skinheads and ex-neo-Nazis in Germany and Sweden, renowned sociologist Michael Kimmel demonstrates the pernicious effects that constructions of masculinity have on these young recruits. Kimmel unveils how white extremist groups wield masculinity to recruit and retain members-and to prevent them from exiting the movement. Young men in these groups often feel a sense of righteous indignation, seeing themselves as victims, their birthright upended in a world dominated by political correctness. Offering the promise of being able to "take back their manhood," these groups leverage stereotypes of masculinity to manipulate despair into white supremacist and neo-Nazi hatred. Kimmel combines individual stories with a multiangled analysis of the structural, political, and economic forces that marginalize these men to shed light on their feelings, yet make no excuses for their actions. Healing from Hate reminds us of some men's efforts to exit the movements and reintegrate themselves back into society and is a call to action to those who make it out to help those who are still trapped.
Combining new quantitative and qualitative data, this article first describes and compares the evolution of right-wing terrorism and militancy in the Nordic countries between 1990 and 2015. Having established that Sweden has experienced considerably more right-wing terrorism and militancy than the other Nordic countries have, the article then seeks to account for Sweden’s outlier position. In doing so, the article draws on three concepts proposed by social movement research: organizational resources, political opportunities, and frame analysis. Applying these concepts to the Nordic countries, the study finds that Sweden’s outlier position may result from different WWII experiences, leaving Sweden with a stronger and more resilient extreme right movement, but also from receiving more immigrants while lacking influential anti-immigration (radical right) parties, and from conducting a more restrictive public debate on immigration, leaving little room for anti-immigration concerns in the public sphere. While the first two explanations are consistent with existing research, the third challenges the dominant view on how the public debate on immigration might influence extreme right mobilization and violence.
Using 1,016 male participants from the pathways to desistance sample, the current investigation assessed two different pathways, one of which ran from college attendance at age 19 to cognitive control at age 20 to reduced criminal offending at age 21 and the other of which ran from cognitive control at age 19 to college attendance at age 20 to reduced criminal offending at age 21. Of the two pathways, only the first one proved significant. These results indicate that college can serve as a turning point for crime deceleration and that it may achieve its effect indirectly by increasing cognitive control in former delinquents who attend college during the emerging adult years. The college experience may stimulate change by providing students with skills like cognitive control that support and maintain their desistance from crime, similar to how the antithetical thought process, cognitive impulsivity, once supported and maintained a criminal lifestyle.
This book provides a detailed application of identity theory to contemporary questions of extremism, radicalization and security. The analysis considers how identity forms a central aspect of notions of extremism and security in Western societies, as articulated both by political leaders, the media and the government. It also takes a close and critical look at counter-extremism policy in contemporary Western society. With its detailed and empirical approach to these questions, this book is an accessible and invaluable resource for academics, practitioners, policy-makers and general readers keen to establish a deeper understanding of the key societal security threats of the day. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017. All rights reserved.
Desistance research emphasizes that offenders identify a future self that aids desistance efforts. However, it is unclear how future selves operate when offending opportunities arise. To explore this we employ qualitative accounts of instances when offende rs and ex - offenders abstained from offending, and the emotions this evoked. Offending was avoided to preserve aspects of offenders’ lives or avoid negative consequences but, for some, avoiding offending brought frustration. Finally, those who had made the most progress towards desistance were less likely to identify opportunities for offending. These findings suggest future selves inform the desistance process, highlighting particular ways to be. However, time is needed to build up valued aspects of the lif e that may be feared lost if engaging in crime. Before the benefits of abstaining are recognized, there may be a tension between the future and current self.
This book provides a comprehensive guide to the different aspects of deradicalization theories, programs and methods.
It analyzes the practical and theoretical aspects of deradicalization programs and the methods being employed to bring extremists and terrorist back to a non-violent life. The book includes in-depth case studies on programs and former extremists, including interviews with former German neo-Nazis and families of Jihadists who have received deradicalization counselling. Using a coherent theory of radicalization and deradicalization, it integrates existing programs into a typology and methodology regarding the effects and concepts behind deradicalization. In addition, a current state of the art assessment of deradicalization programs around the world provides a collection of programs and landscapes worldwide. It thereby functions as a unique guide for practitioners and policymakers in need of evaluation or construction of such programs, as well as a resource pool for academics interested in research about deradicalization programs and processes. The major aim of this book is to consolidate the existing scholarship on deradicalization and to move the field forward by proposing a coherent theory of deradicalization, including ways to measure effectiveness, standard methods and procedures, different actors of such programs and cooperation on national and international level. In essence, this work enables the reader to identify how, when and why deradicalization programs work, how they can be built and structured, and to identify their limitations.
This book will be of interest to students of radicalisation, counter-terrorism, radical Islam, criminology, security studies and IR.
Groups of racist skinheads now constitute a significant element of the global radical right. The British youth subculture of the late 1960s has thus been transformed into a worldwide social movement, the violent cutting-edge of white supremacist resistance to multiculturalism. Pollard examines the historical development of the racist skinhead phenomenon and, in particular, analyses the origins, nature and development of the ideas that inspire it: the foundational myth; ‘skinhead, a way of life’; Odinism or paganism; the skinhead as victim; skinheads as a vanguard of white, male, working-class revolutionaries; National Socialism and antisemitism; and, above all, racialism.
After years of marginal appeal in the electorate, Golden Dawn (GD), a hitherto minor grupuscule of the neo-fascist right, has experienced impressive and continuous electoral success in Greece since 2010. Ιn this paper, we focus on the micro-scale of local communities and explore how violence is used by a local activist in ways that attract sympathisers to GD. Employing ethnographic research in a rural community we observe an everyday rhetoric that gives GD a privileged position in the circulation of violence. We argue that, rather than being a collateral symptom of neo-fascist mobilisation, violence may under certain conditions be one of the strengths of extreme-right movements.
Objective There exist significant gaps in our understanding and knowledge of the contributory factors which give rise to the development of a mass shooter. Method A case analysis is presented of Anders Behring Breivik who engaged in a bombing and shooting spree in Norway on July 22, 2011. Results The case analysis presents that he has diagnoses of Asperger's Syndrome, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and Antisocial Personality Traits/Disorder. Additionally, a forensic profile is presented that a narcissistic decompensation contributed to him developing a depression, followed by a rewrite of his life story where he is a hero defending Europe against a conspiracy. However his personal and political grievances and violent ideation placed him onto the Path to Intended/Terroristic Violence, which culminated in the attacks in Norway. Conclusions The present study suggests that there may be an association between NPD and violence, similar to other studies. However, the factor of narcissistic decompensation (possibly co-occurring with an Asperger's coping strategy) was presented as a critical component of NPD that mediated its relationship with violence. Furthermore, aspects from his Asperger's Syndrome and Narcissistic Decompensation contributed to his personal and political grievances and the other steps on the Path towards Intended/Terroristic Violence.
The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of students and teachers who form voluntary coalitions or school projects to address issues of racism and discrimination. The authors draw on several years of experience of facilitating student activism and findings from a recent collaborative research project. This research documents and analyzes experiences from a number of school settings across western Canada but has implications for student social justice activism everywhere. The study examines how students get involved with voluntary coalitions to undertake anti-racism initiatives to enhance the social acceptance of marginalized students and how they can overcome sources of resistance to promote inclusion.
Recent advances in the use of objects in memory studies and in reminiscence work demonstrate the potential for using objects in archaeological oral-history projects. It is proposed that an artifact-centered interview model provides a framework that is well suited for use in archaeological research. Observations from recent studies in the fields of historical archaeology and memory studies, alongside results from research ongoing at Newcastle University, have informed the development of an artifact-centered approach to oral-data collection. By recognizing that the fragmentary material uncovered through excavation is often unfamiliar to non-archaeologists, the artifact-centered approach uses complete "exemplar" objects to fill the interpretive gap between sherds in artifact bags and actual 19th-century domestic interiors. Results show that exemplar objects are powerful mnemonic aids, and interviews conducted with elderly working-class women in northeastern England demonstrate that it is possible to conduct interviews today that directly influence the interpretation of 19th-century archaeological material.
Although most leading Nazis realized that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was a spurious document, they found it useful in promoting belief in the international Jewish conspiracy of which they were
already convinced. Authorship and other details were irrelevant, they averred, if the book expressed “inner truth.”
When people come to counselling they do so because they identify some issue or problem in their life with which they want help. In the process they reveal, to a greater or lesser extent, various aspects of themselves in a form of confession of the self. Thus, the counselling relationship, although a private one, has performative aspects, whereby the person reveals something of their truth about themselves to the counsellor. How the person and the counsellor then deal with this discursive construction of self will differ according to the modality that the counsellor adopts. This paper is divided into sections that cover, first, an introduction with a brief outline of Foucault's genealogical analysis, and second, a genealogy of confessing our selves with subsections on Classical Greek technologies of the self, Christian religious confessional practices, and medico-therapeutic confessional practices: the secularisation of confession. The paper ends with a third section that asks the question, counselling as self-denial or self-mastery? This paper argues that confession is a form of truth telling that constitutes the self. Following Foucault, it suggests that confession, as a technology of self, should be based less on an ethic of self-denial than one of self-mastery. Self-mastery provides a secular model consonant with the demands of a postmodern world that recognises the inescapability of desire and the necessity of pleasure in a new body politics.