Far-right reflexology: a periphery-to-centre approach for the study of the far-right

Abstract

ABSTRACTTo address the problem of participant access, central in the study of the far-right, scholars of far-right mobilisations navigate between a methodological rock and a hard place. Either scholars produce in-depth qualitative accounts, putting their safety and ethical commitments at risk, or scholars study far-right mobilisations from a distance and produce limited externalist accounts that centre large surveys, quantitative studies and electoral analysis at the expense of granular detail. Inspired by the medical logics of reflexology, I propose one solution to this impasse that understands the impenetrable centres of far-right networks through their peripheries. I argue that far-right network peripheries—often more accessible to scholars—share personnel, information and resources with network centres, revealing much about these often secretive central organizational nodes. I advocate for deep qualitative work on the far-right (thus avoiding externalist pitfalls) but in the peripheries of far-right networks (thus avoiding safety and ethical risks). Refocusing on far-right peripheries opens a number of analytical doors that decentre the study of electoral politics and refocus on far-right embeddedness in civil society networks. Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 There is substantial debate over the term far-right, but Mudde’s definition remains standard across much of the literature on far-right movements. See Cas Mudde, Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007). I do, however, discard his use of populism as a key marker of far-rightness because it fails to capture mobilisations outside of Europe or North America like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Nippon Kaigi and Front Pembela Islam, who appear clearly far-right in the content of their thought, but are ambivalent in their populism.2 Nonna Mayer, ‘Political Science Approaches to the Far Right’, in Stephen Ashe, Joel Busher, Graham Macklin and Aaron Winter (eds) Researching the Far Right: Theory, Method and Practices (London: Routledge, 2021), pp. 17–31.3 Elisabeth Carter, ‘Right-Wing Extremism/Radicalism: Reconstructing the Concept’, Journal of Political Ideologies, 23:2 (2018), pp. 157–182.4 Kathleen Blee, ‘Ethnographies of the Far-Right’, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 36:2 (2007), pp. 119–128; Pietro Castelli Gattinara, ‘The Study of the Far Right and its Three E’s: Why Scholarship Must Go Beyond Eurocentrism, Electoralism and Externalism’, French Politics, 18 (2020), pp. 314–333.5 Mayer, op. cit.6 Joel Busher, ‘Negotiating Ethical Dilemmas During an Ethnographic Study of Anti-Minority Activity’, in Stephen Ashe, Joel Busher, Graham Macklin and Aaron Winter (eds) Researching the Far Right: Theory, Method and Practices (London: Routledge, 2021), pp. 270–283.7 Werner Ulrich, ‘Beyond Methodology Choice: Critical Systems Thinking as Critically Systemic Discourse’, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 54:4 (2003), pp. 325–342.8 Gattinara, op. cit.9 Donatella della Porta, Joseba Fernández, Hara Kouki, and Lorenzo Mosca, Movement Parties Against Austerity (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2017); Gregory Koger, Seth Masket and Hans Noel, ‘Partisan Webs: Information Exchange and Party Networks’, British Journal of Political Science, 39:3 (2009), pp. 633–653.10 Paul Cilliers, ‘Boundaries, Hierarchies and Networks in Complex Systems’, International Journal of Innovation Management, 5:2 (2001), pp. 135–147; Bruno Latour, Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).11 Latour, op. cit.; Koger, Masket and Noel, op. cit.12 Katy Brown, Aurelien Mondon and Aaron Winter, ‘The Far Right, the Mainstream and Mainstreaming: Towards a Heuristic Framework’, Journal of Political Ideologies, 28:2 (2023), pp. 162–179.13 Helmut Anheier, ‘Movement Development and Organisational Networks: The Role of ‘Single Members’ in the German Nazi Party, 1925–30’, in Mario Diani and Doug McAdam (eds) Social Movements and Networks: Relational Approaches to Collective Action (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 49–74; Sheri Berman, ‘Civil Society and the Collapse of the Weimar Republic’, World Politics, 49:3 (1997), pp. 401–429; Jason Kaufman, For the Common Good? 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In Thailand, the central issue that the far-right has mobilised around, whether Nawaphon and the Red Gaurs in the 1970s or Social Sanction and Rubbish Collection Organisation in the 21st century, is status quo royalist loyalty.39 Robert Futrell, Pete Simi and Simon Gottschalk, ‘Understanding Music in Movements: The White Power Music Scene’, The Sociological Quarterly, 47:2 (2006), pp. 275–304.40 Cynthia Miller-Idriss, The Extreme Gone Mainstream: Commercialisation and Far Right Youth Culture in Germany, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018).41 Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (London: Vintage, 1993).42 Margaret Stuart, ‘Unravelling Imperial Knots: Teaching New Zealand History Contrapuntally’, New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 57 (2022), pp. 69–86.43 Russell Curtis Jr. and Louis Zurcher, ‘Stable Resources of Protest Movements: The Multi-Organizational Field’, Social Forces, 52:1 (1973), pp. 53–61; David Knoke, ‘Networks of Political Action: Toward Theory Construction’, Social Forces, 68:4 (1990), pp. 1041–1063.44 Far right political parties, like outreach organisations, are not covert, but they are almost always highly central in far-right networks, and so are excluded from a periphery to centre approach to inter-organisational networks.45 Berthod, Grother-Hammer and Sydow, op. cit.46 Cristophe Jaffrelot, Modi’s India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021).47 Abdul Ghafoor Noorani, The RSS: A Menace to India (New Delhi: LeftWord Books, 2019).48 Des Raj Goyal, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (New Delhi: Radhakrishna Prakashan, 2000); Thomas Blom Hansen, Wave: Democracy and Hindu Nationalism in India (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999); Christophe Jaffrelot, The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics 1925 to the 1990s: Strategies of Identity Building, Implantation and Mobilisation (London: Hurst & Co, 1996); Pralay Kanungo, RSS’ Tryst With Politics: From Hedgewar to Sudarshan (New Delhi: Manohar Press, 2002).49 Felix Pal, ‘Why Muslims join the Muslim wing of the RSS’, Contemporary South Asia, 28:3 (2020), pp. 275–287; Lalit Vachani, ‘When Hindutva Performs Muslimness: Ethnographic Encounters with the Muslim Rashtriya Manch’, in Thomas Blom Hansen and Srirupa Roy (eds) Saffron Republic: Hindu Nationalism and State Power in India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022), pp. 219–250.50 Vachani, op. cit.51 Noorani, op. cit.52 Goyal, op. cit., p. 24.53 Hansen, op. cit.54 Kanungo, op. cit.55 Exceptions to this include Malini Bhattacharjee, Disaster Relief and the RSS: Resurrecting ‘Religion’ Through Humanitarianism (New Delhi: Sage, 2019); Kyrsztof Iwanek, Endless Siege: Education and Nationalism in Vidya Bharati Schools (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022); Tanika Sarkar, ‘How the Sangh Parivar Writes and Teaches History’, in Angana Chatterji, Thomas Blom Hansen and Christophe Jaffrelot (eds) Majoritarian State: How Hindu Nationalism is Changing India (London: C Hurst & Co, 2019), pp. 151–175; Tariq Thachil, Elite Parties, Poor Voters: How Social Services Win Votes in India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014).56 M.G. Chitkara, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh: National Upsurge (New Delhi: APH Publishing, 2004).57 Mattison Mines and Vijayalakshmi Gourishankar, ‘Leadership and Individuality in South Asia: The Case of the South Indian Big-Man’, The Journal of Asian Studies, 49:4 (1990), pp. 761–786.58 Mark Granovetter, ‘The Strength of Weak Ties’, American Journal of Sociology, 78:6 (1973), pp. 1360–1380.59 Hindu Seva Pratishthana, ‘About Us’, Hindu Seva Pratishthana (n.d.), https://hinduseva.org/Founder (Accessed 21 October 2022).60 Bharatiya Railways Mazdoor Sangh, ‘ About Us’, Bharatiya Railways Mazdoor Sangh, (n.d.), https://brms.org.in/ (Accessed 20 October 2022).61 Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited, ‘Major CSR Projects’, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited, (2021), https://ongcindia.com/web/eng/csr/major-csrprojects (Accessed 21 October 2022).62 Bhattacharjee, op. cit.63 Utkal Bipanna Sahayata Samiti, ‘List of Donors’, Utkal Bipanna Sahayata Samiti (2013), https://www.ubssseva.org/list-of-donor.php (Accessed 21 October 2022).64 Utkal Bipanna Sahayata Samiti, ‘Relief and Rehabilitation’, Utkal Bipanna Sahayata Samiti (2021), https://www.ubssseva.org/relief.php (Accessed 21 October 2022).Additional informationNotes on contributorsFelix PalFelix Pal is a lecturer of politics and international relations at the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia.