Anika Posselius’s research while affiliated with Lofarma Germany and other places

This mapping study is a part of the programme titled European Network for Non-Violence and Dialogue (ENND), which intends to seek non-violent approaches to current value-based conflicts. It helps the collecting and sharing of the information that diverse CSOs have learned about third-party interventions and of process-based tools for public debate in seven different countries: Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Germany. It aims to create a functional network that will become a counterbalance to the diverging direction of Central and Eastern Europe from the ideals and values that frame the project of a united Europe and a network of civil society organisations and individuals active in intervening in value-based conflicts and de-radicalisation with the purpose of learning from one another, collecting tested conflict intervention approaches, supporting one another's interventions and organising public campaigns promoting common goals and values.

It is beyond doubt that the extreme right has changed over the last few decades. Right-wing extremists have ceased to be the bunch of mostly young male neo-Nazi skinheads who march the streets and commit violent hate crimes—if the picture ever was that simple in the first place. The success of the French extreme right party leader Marine Le Pen, or Beate Zschäpe, the only surviving member of the core of the German neo-Nazi terror cell “National Socialist Underground”, have revealed that women are an important part of the extreme right—and that they are not only followers but also activists in crucial positions and perpetrators of extreme right violence in Germany (Köttig 2004).

This book is a systematic consideration of the link between the extreme right and the discourse about developments in regard to gender issues within different national states. The contributors analyze right-wing extremist tendencies in Europe under the specific perspective on gender. The volume brings together the few existing findings concerning the quantitative dimension of activities carried out by men and women in different countries, and illuminates and juxtaposes gender ratios along with the role of women in right-wing extremism. Along with the gender-specific access to right-wing groups, the chapters look at networks, organizational forms, specific strategies of female right-wing extremists, their ideologies (especially regarding femininity and masculinity), hetero normativity, discourses on sexuality, and preventive and counter-strategies. The book will be of use to students and scholars interested in gender and politics, European politics, and political extremism.