73 research outputs found
Mauro Tebaldi, Il Presidente della Repubblica, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2005, pp. 343.
No full textThe author offers a review of the book by M. Tebaldi concerning the President of the Repubblic in the Italian constitutional system
The Terrorist and the Girl Next Door: Love Jihad in French Femonationalist Nonfiction
No full textThis paper explores the theme of Love Jihad in “true sex crime” novels, French mass-market paperbacks where a journalist or author recounts the temoignage of women who suffered sexual violence at the hands of Muslim men. Semiotic analysis of visual and textual representations shows a melodramatic triangle of female victims, Muslim male perpetrators, and heroic readers. These stories reflect, dramatize, and sexualize broader social constructions of the monstrous Muslim; from Far-Right conspiracies of The Great Replacement to femonationalist debates about veils and republican values. In the final section, the paper explores how visual and verbal tropes from these popular discourses reappear in political speech and media from the National Rally
On Tradition, Common Sense and Conspiracies. Strategies and Insights of the Contemporary Far Right
No full textIn the first chapter of the book, “Granola Nazis And Neoliberal
Mystics”, Catherine Tebaldi and Alfonso Del Percio discuss digital traditionalism, that is, the ways in which new technologies
enable old, often reactionary, ideologies and new modes of life
which often call to mind images of ancient traditions. In particular, Tebaldi and Del Percio focus on two seemingly opposed elements of what they call “digital traditionalism”: (a)
the rise of white nationalist online influencers, and their use of
women’s media, and (b) the UK fascist group, Patriotic Alternative, who couch white supremacy in a return to so-called traditional ways of living that mix the hippie’s “back to the land”
and the Nazi’s “blood and soil”. The chapter offers an analysis
of “neoliberal mystics”, i.e., entrepreneurs who use the language of ancient spiritual traditions and wellness for technocratic ends. According to Tebaldi and Del Percio, while rugged homesteaders and suited HR bureaucrats may seem at opposite
ends of the spectrum, they both blend new technology and reactionary politics, traditionalism and futurism (see also Leidig
2023; Tebaldi 2021).
In the second chapter, Katherine Kondor argues that the
COVID-19 pandemic and the measures implemented by various governments tended to foster specific far-right conspiracy
theories. Particularly concerning was the perception of pandemic measures as support for the New World Order conspiracy theory, which suggested that the pandemic was part of a
grand plan for total control. More specifically, Kondor starts
from the premise that throughout history people have adopted
conspiratorial beliefs to explain the origins of various pandemics, with the coronavirus being surrounded by alternative explanations for the origins of the virus and the efficacy of safety
measures; these correlate with studies showing that conspiracy
beliefs increase when people feel powerless as they offer individuals some sense of control in being able to reject official
narratives. In the third chapter, George Newth analyses Matteo Salvini
and the Lega’s use of “common sense” to depict policies via
Twitter. In particular, by combining a Gramscian-inspired dyad
of common sense versus good sense (senso comune v buon senso)
with the general orientation of the Discourse Historical Approach (DHA) to Critical Discourse Studies (CDS), Newth examines Salvini’s use of a buon senso trope over the five year period (2018-2023), revealing how Salvini’s use of buon senso
formed part of a populist far right logic to construct a reactionary people and contribute to a mainstreaming of far right politics (see also Newth 2023).
In the fourth, final chapter of the book, I focus on the sudden and risky decision, taken in August 2023 by the Italian executive led by Giorgia Meloni, to tax the extra-profits of Italian banks, which was largely welcomed by the political opposition.
More specifically, using the notion of vincolo esterno (“external
constraint”), so avoiding conflict with European Union Institutions and the organisations of which it is a member (NATO,
G7), I argue that the Meloni government’s actions in this first
year have carefully respected this constraint, seeking continuity
with the Draghi government at the foreign policy level (as the
Ukrainian dossier can demonstrate) and showing how the tax’s
rationale is hard to understand. In fact, the chapter concludes
that rather than a (populist) well-conceived marketing device,
the taxation of Italian banks – or at least the first draft of the
tax – was conducted as a pure improvisation
Granola Nazis and the Great Reset: Enregistering, circulating and regimenting nature on the far right
No full textpeer reviewe
Tradwives and truth warriors: Gender and nationalism in US white nationalist women’s blogs
No full textpeer reviewe
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