Nordic Neo-Nationalism, Extreme Speech and the Far Right

Description

Key Note Lecture
In this presentation, I wish to look at how the driving force of neo-nationalism comes from a perception of a “nation-in-danger” which serves as the basis for aggressive exclusionary reasoning and practices on the Danish scene in particular. Through the analysis of certain minor critical media events, extreme speech, and ethnographic interviews with social media commentators, I will argue that the perception of the "nation-in-danger" is a specific cultural logic that operates recurrently at different levels and, consequently, constitutes a form of naturalization of popular Danish racial reasoning and public debate. Then I move on to discuss some underlying features of this logic. One feature is the agonism and ritual opposition, where facts and original themes cease to play a role in the commentary sections and debate. Another feature is part of the general decline of scholarly authority in the Nordic countries and the emergence of polarizing identity politics, which feeds into anti-intellectualism as a feature that also characterize the contemporary global populism. I end the presentation with a call for public academic engagement that take these features into account and get beyond them.

Period	17 Aug 2018
Event title	19th Nordic Migration Conference: New (Im)mobilities. Migration and Race in the Era of Authoritarianism
Event type	Conference
Conference number	19
Location	Norrköping , SwedenShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International