The purpose of this study is to investigate the constructed vision of social reality that the Sweden Democrats define and thus defend and legitimizes through their climate and environmental policy. With a focus on the power relations that are constitutive of the Sweden Democrats' definition of social reality, the intention is to clarify the Sweden Democrats' position on the issue of climate change and to make visible what underlies their actions concerning the ratification of the Paris Agreement. To achieve the purpose, critical discourse analysis is used as a method where political documents concerning the Sweden Democrats' climate, environment, and energy policy during the period 2018-2021 constitute the empirical material. The results show that the Sweden Democrats' definition of climate change is both ambiguous and ambivalent, where Sweden's self-image and Swedish interests are prioritized over climate measures. The result also shows that the Sweden Democrats' definition of climate change is constituted by underlying power relations to preserve the power of the nation-state and the subordinate position of developing countries. One conclusion that can be drawn is to reduce the Sweden Democrats to just being climate change deniers is to simplify because their attitude to climate change is characterized by ambivalence and self-interest rather than skepticism and denial. Another conclusion is that the Sweden Democrats' attitude to climate change is more about defending and preserving existing power relations and less about questioning the existence of climate change. A third conclusion that can be drawn is that the Sweden Democrats' action regarding the Paris Agreement is more about opposing a social change that entails increased equality and about legitimizing the nation state's continued relevance in a globalized world, and less about opposing the content and implementation of the Paris Agreement.

There are many negative consequences related to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. The phenomenon of the settler's violence is one of them. The aim of the thesis is to explain the conditionality of the violence and to put it into context with Israeli political scene. A quantitative analysis is made to examine the relationship between Israeli far-right parties' electoral gains and the incidence of violence against Palestinians residents of the West Bank. Also, spatial analysis is made to measure the level of clustering of the incidents. To articulate the theoretical assumptions, the theory of social cleavages was used. In line with the assumptions, the results suggest that in Jewish settlements on the West Bank, there is statistically significant connection between Israeli far-right parties' electoral gains and the number of the violent incidents. The strongest correlation is proven between the incidents and the electoral gains of the parties influenced by Kahanism, a militant racist ideology. There is a weaker correlation between the incidence of violence and the electoral gains of the parties representing Religious Zionism, an ideology that combines religion and nationalism. The spatial distribution of the incidents was irregular. There was a clustering of high values in several areas,...

This bachelor’s thesis aspires to contribute to the field of research concerning women and far-right extremism. Scholars have during recent years called attention to the surge of far-right extremism and female participation in jihadi terrorism. However, when these fields of research meet, various knowledge gaps are distinguishable. The explicit research gap that this thesis aims to fill concerns a lack of comparative research on how men and women in the extreme-right perceive women. To fill this gap, this thesis aspires to describe how women are perceived, on a sex-disaggregated basis, in the far-right extremist movement by answering the research question: How do the female far-right extremists in Proud Girls and the male far-right extremists in Proud Boys' perception of women differ? Using the gender-separated US extreme-right group Proud Boys/Proud Girls as a typical case, the study performs an ideology analysis to distinguish how the groups perceive women. Thus, this study contributes to the field by presenting a comparative analysis of how extreme right perceives women. The results of the study suggest a difference in how Proud Boys and Proud Girls perceive women as the former conveys a more misogynist perception whereas the latter adheres to a more empowering view of women.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to a greater knowledge and understanding of violent discourses within the Far Right community with emphasizes on online violent content. The study has, by analyzing the narrative, identified four discursive strategies used by the Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR) in order to legitimize violence. By studying three texts in the time span of fifteen years published by the organization, the ambition is to identify a change in the discourse of violence.   Today’s society is greatly influenced by the presence of the Internet. The rise of populist political parties in European and American counties etc. has lead to discussions regarding the cause of this phenomenon. A reoccurring debate is if the Internet is to blame for this, since it is accessible for most people, with non-or little legislative control regarding credibility. What can be stated for a fact, however, is that these forces are once again gaining more support and power. Due to this, finding explanations for this turn of event, which is updated to the society that we live in now is of importance. In order to understand this phenomenon the study has examined the Far Right organization the Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR). In the empirical part of the thesis four themes of violent discourses were identified; the enemies, the threat, family politics and women’s role in society and community-building processes. The four discursive strategies identified are in accordance with the chosen methodological framework, namely, critical discourse analysis. Aforementioned discursive strategies and analysis questions which, framed the empirical material, were analysed through the lenses of Norman Fairclough’s theory three-dimensional conception of discourse. In the discourses, amongst other things, it could be identified that the discourses had indeed become more violent.

This paper analyses the interactions between Australian mainstream media and social media political influencers and how these interactions amplify ideological misinformation. Social media, particularly YouTube, is increasingly a primary source of news and information for people, principally in the younger 18 – 35-year demographic. Yet while social media has opened up horizontal networks of mass self-communication that allow anyone with an internet to communicate on a mass scale, it has also precipitated a significant rise in the dissemination of reactionary right and extremist messages. The analysis is embedded in Manuel Castells network society theory and utilising Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis framework and José van Dijck’s combination of the Network Society theory with Actor Network Theory. By analysing the discourses employed by News Corp around notions of “identity politics” “western civilisation” and “the left”, this paper argues that the discourses of News Corp Australia are largely the same as the Alternative Influence Network (AIN) on YouTube – a loosely connected group of reactionary right-wing influencers. It further analyses the way News Corp reports on these influencers, concluding that the intertwining discursive patterns of both News Corp and the AIN have the effect of discriminating against a range of minority groups due to its centring of white, western identity as default. News Corp produces and amplifies ideological misinformation through both power and counterpower communication networks. This is concerning considering News Corp’s prominence and influence in the Australian media landscape. Finally, it argues that the ideological misinformation amplified by News Corp Australia is contributing to a new ideological paradigm that combines populist nationalism with neoliberalism.

The research focus of this study is to investigate the ways in which the so-called European refugee crisis has been socially constructed as number one urgent matter for the European community in the years between 2015-2017. Noting the unprecedented rise of the public support for far-right parties in the European polls, the goal of this study is to understand and conceptualize the ways in which the refugee crisis has been presented as an existential threat by the right-wing political leaders in the Netherlands, France and Germany, three core European members, which held elections in 2017. This has been done by utilizing the theoretical framework, composed of the Copenhagen School, as well as the categorization framework which builds upon the results from previous literature on the topic of the securitization of migration. In addition, by utilizing critical discourse analysis this study probes the hypothesis that regardless of the magnitude of the crisis, the securitizing discourses are largely revolving around four overarching realms: the identity, criminological, political and economic realm. The findings infer that the securitizing discourses of the right-wing leaders in the Netherlands, France and Germany in relation to migration are identical and are revolving around the aforementioned domains, regardless of the countries’ political landscape.

The thesis explores the mobilization strategy of the non-systemic far right in Russia. The study focuses on two aspects of this phenomenon. First, it examines the mobilization strategy and second, it analyses its impact on the success of the far right's political demands. The thesis applies the theoretical concept of social movement and the classification of collective action by Sidney Tarrow. Mobilization is a complex issue that cannot be researched as an isolated event. For this reason, the thesis also focuses on the determinants that precede such mobilization and that, simultaneously,affect its form and strength. The thesis concludes that the most effective mobilization strategy is to concentrate on organizing disruptive and episodic actions in which the condition of the presence of an inter-ethnic conflict must be met. Among the typical features of such disruptive and episodic collective actions, the following can be listed: a requirement for displacement of the non-Russian population from the conflict area, the formation of local security and political strutures, and effective work with disinformation and media in general. Finally, the thesis determines that the mobilization strategy was more impactful on the regional level where the far right was more successful in pressing its demands. At...

This is a case study of the political situation in Sweden where a present and growing far-right has generated an outcome of political fragmentation. The process between this probable cause and outcome will be investigated to find the best possible explanation for how an isolated party could generate the outcome of political fragmentation despite their denied political participation with the other parties. The process will be analyzed through mainstream parties’ political discourse about the far-right and how they give expression for their strategies to deal with their presence. This will be done through an abductive discourse-pathway analysis, wherein mainstream parties’ dynamics towards the far-right and how it has changed over time will be analyzed. The result from the analysis showed that there are three possible outcomes when dealing with the far-right: political fragmentation, political unity and political polarization. The conclusion is that political fragmentation occurs when mainstream parties are pulled in different directions regarding what strategies to use when they ought to deal with a growing far-right presence.

This thesis examines through the means of a comparative perspective, factors which have allowed the British National Party to enjoy recent electoral success at the local level under the leadership of party chairman Nick Griffin. Such electoral successes have arisen despite the seemingly relative obscurity of the party at the turn of the century. A number of different aspects are examined in order to achieve this aim. The history of the far right in the UK is examined to establish whether the BNP have changed their stance in comparison to previous far right movements. The BNP are also investigated comparatively with other West European parties who have enjoyed national success, as a means of discovering whether the party are similar to their far right neighbours and why they have not enjoyed similar national success. The press coverage of the BNP is examined at a local and national level, using content analysis and the LexisNexis database. The thesis looks at the role played by the BNP in local elections and the decline of participation in political activity, to establish if there is a link between these two factors. Finally a case study is taken of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, to establish directly if any of the above factors can be directly applied to BNP electoral success in this district. The research discovers that there are opportunities for the BNP to establish a connection with the electorate in local politics which are not necessarily available at times of general election.

La version intégrale de ce mémoire est disponible uniquement pour consultation individuelle à la Bibliothèque de musique de l’Université de Montréal (www.bib.umontreal.ca/MU). / Ce mémoire de maîtrise examine les processus d’intertextualité liés à la représentation de la femme dans la culture musicale folk ou soft rock et examine les mécanismes par lesquels ils sont récupérés par les tenants du suprémacisme blanc. Le mémoire se consacre exclusivement à l’analyse d’une ballade folk pour voix et piano: Tomorrow Belongs To Me, telle qu’enregistrée par la chansonnière suédoise raciste Saga. Cet arrangement d’un extraitde la trame sonore du film Cabaret soulève la problématique de l’apparition des femmes sur la scène musicale suprémaciste, ainsi que celle de la réception de leur musique par les militants masculins. La recherche montre que le choix esthétique de Saga lui permet concurremment de se complaire aux codes d’un milieu à nette dominance masculine et de les défier, assimilant du coup l’idéologie fasciste à l’expression et à l’expérience de la féminité. Le présent travail est basé dans un premier temps sur l’analyse sémiologique des composantes musicales de l’oeuvre, appuyée à la fois sur la littérature musicologique et sociologique sur le folk et la musique de masse, ainsi que sur des entrevues visant à recueillir chez les sujets des matériaux de comparaisons interobjectives, ceci d’après le modèle de Tagg. L’analyse s’appuie ensuite sur une approche holistique intégrant l’analyse du texte, sa mise en contexte et la compréhension de cette pièce en tant que propagande,cela afin de saisir les nouvelles formes de rhétorique employées dans le créneau musical raciste. / This Master’s thesis examines the intertextuality processes related to female gender representation in the folk and soft rock music culture and examines the mechanisms by which those are hijacked by tenants of white supremacism. The research focuses solely on the analysis of a folk ballad for voice and piano: Tomorrow Belongs To Me, as recorded by Swedish racist songstress Saga. This arrangement of an excerpt from the movie soundtrack Cabaret raises the issue of the emergence of women on the racist musical scene, as well as the issue of the reception of their music by male militants. The thesis shows that Saga’s esthetic allows her to conform herself to the codes of a male-dominated milieu, as well as to defy them simultaneously, thus allowing her to assimilate a fascist ideology to the expression and experience of womanhood.In its first section, the paper is based upon the semiological analysis of the musical components of the piece, supported by musicological and sociological literature about folk and mass music, as well as by interviews aiming at collecting inter-objective comparison material from the participants, according to Tagg’s model. The analysis is then grounded ona holistic approach, which integrates a text analysis, providing the setting as context in addition to the understanding of that piece as propaganda, with the aim to understand the new forms of rhetoric employed in racist music.