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Far-right responses to the crisis in Scandinavia

Askanius, Tina LU and Mylonas, Yiannis LU (2013) (Mis)understanding political participation
Abstract
As the crisis maintains its grip in European countries, xenophobic populist parties and fascist groups thrive across the Eurozone. In the Scandinavian context, the crisis is considered a threat to a welfare system based on cultural homogeneity and closed national policies. These ruptures in the protectionist social institutions of the Scandinavian welfare societies have triggered fears of immanent dangers; ”the remnants of the social state are considered as privileges that need to be defended against intruders and strangers” (Bauman, 2004), widespread feelings of social pessimism, and an advent of cultural racist discourses, “reducing the threshold of racist speech in the public sphere” (Lentin and Titley, 2011: 140). Drawing on a... (More)
As the crisis maintains its grip in European countries, xenophobic populist parties and fascist groups thrive across the Eurozone. In the Scandinavian context, the crisis is considered a threat to a welfare system based on cultural homogeneity and closed national policies. These ruptures in the protectionist social institutions of the Scandinavian welfare societies have triggered fears of immanent dangers; ”the remnants of the social state are considered as privileges that need to be defended against intruders and strangers” (Bauman, 2004), widespread feelings of social pessimism, and an advent of cultural racist discourses, “reducing the threshold of racist speech in the public sphere” (Lentin and Titley, 2011: 140). Drawing on a discourse-theoretical framework this project examines how political groups and networks in Denmark and Sweden such as ‘Danish National Front’, ‘Nordfront’, ‘Swedish National League’ and ‘The Swedes Party’ respond to the crisis as an opportunity to fuel anti-immigration discourses and prey on the sentiments of instability and insecurity in the population. This paper focus on how these citizen groups and activist networks engage in different discursive strategies of ‘othering’ based on scapegoats and national stereotypes as ways of understanding and coping with the perceived threats of the crisis. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to conference
publication status
unpublished
subject
keywords
extreme-right, financial crisis
conference name
(Mis)understanding political participation
conference location
Münich, Germany
conference dates
2013-10-10 - 2013-10-13
project
The economic crisis of the EU in the media discourses of the extreme right: the cases of Denmark and Sweden
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
f6452788-2c08-46e6-b6c7-15bcedcc7cad (old id 4584448)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 14:36:55
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:21:19
@misc{f6452788-2c08-46e6-b6c7-15bcedcc7cad,
  abstract     = {{As the crisis maintains its grip in European countries, xenophobic populist parties and fascist groups thrive across the Eurozone. In the Scandinavian context, the crisis is considered a threat to a welfare system based on cultural homogeneity and closed national policies. These ruptures in the protectionist social institutions of the Scandinavian welfare societies have triggered fears of immanent dangers; ”the remnants of the social state are considered as privileges that need to be defended against intruders and strangers” (Bauman, 2004), widespread feelings of social pessimism, and an advent of cultural racist discourses, “reducing the threshold of racist speech in the public sphere” (Lentin and Titley, 2011: 140). Drawing on a discourse-theoretical framework this project examines how political groups and networks in Denmark and Sweden such as ‘Danish National Front’, ‘Nordfront’, ‘Swedish National League’ and ‘The Swedes Party’ respond to the crisis as an opportunity to fuel anti-immigration discourses and prey on the sentiments of instability and insecurity in the population. This paper focus on how these citizen groups and activist networks engage in different discursive strategies of ‘othering’ based on scapegoats and national stereotypes as ways of understanding and coping with the perceived threats of the crisis.}},
  author       = {{Askanius, Tina and Mylonas, Yiannis}},
  keywords     = {{extreme-right; financial crisis}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  title        = {{Far-right responses to the crisis in Scandinavia}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}