Far right and anti gender contentious politics
Prerequisiti
All phd years and the allievi corso ordinario
Programma
Overview of the course:
Recent developments in Europe, including the financial crisis of 2008 and its economic repercussions and the refugee crisis intensifying eight years later, as well as the health Covid-19 crisis created favorable conditions for increased mobilization of far-right and anti-gender organizations and movements.
The far right is booming in national parliaments, in coalitions with mainstream parties or as wildly successful contentious challenge to democracy. A major reason for the success of right wing collective actors is that they capitalize on voters’ disaffection with existing democratic actors and institutions, but also on economic grievances and cultural perceived threats. Along macro level factors, meso and micro level aspects need to be taken into consideration, as well as the increasing interactions between far right political parties and movements (such as the anti gender movements), which are nicely captured by the novel concept of ‘movement-party’. Yet these factors vary wildly across Europe.
This course not only covers this existing literature but also examines the far right and anti gender politics as ‘social movement’ (made of a collective identity, networks and specific frames) rather than just political parties. In particular, this course aims to provide researchers with basic knowledge of key topics in the scholarly literature on the radical right and anti gender contentious politics, while fostering critical debate on some of the most contested issues surrounding it. Firstly, it will focus on conceptual issues and definitions (as well as set the boundaries among various concepts such as radical right, extreme right, right wing populism, anti gender right wing actors, no vax, etc.), on the causes and consequences of fair right and anti gender movements and parties’ emergence and mobilisation (at the micro, meso and macro level) as well as on some innovative methods to study the far right and anti gender politics (such as ethnography with radicals, social network analysis). The new concept of far-right and anti-gender 'movement parties' will be introduced as a new lens through which to address the organisational transformations of the far right in contemporary democracies; as well as current trends towards the ‘transnationalisation’ of the far right and anti-gender movements; the far right and space; and the far right and performativity, culture and art.
During the course we will to address these issues, by linking the current theoretical debates with practical implementation through the illustration of concrete case studies in Europe (and beyond).
Obiettivi formativi
Course format:
The course will be divided into seven sessions of 3 hours each. Each session will begin with a presentation by the instructor, followed by a general discussion. Students are expected to prepare comments related to the topic of the session and possibly link the theme of the session with their own research projects (i.e. class participation). The aim is to use the readings to let emerge doubts, questions and comments related to the students’ research projects and research interests (not just a summary of the readings). Students might also bring very practical research dilemma about data gathering and data analysis, linked to the compulsory readings. Some guest speakers at the end of each session will contribute to make more lively the course, presenting applied research of the topic addressed. During the last session of the seminar, students will present and discuss how their own projects relate to and build on the course topic and approaches, and ethical issues related to do research on far right /anti gender politics and actors will be addressed.
Assesment:
Master's (50%) and PhD students will be evaluated based on their participation in class. PhD students are not required to write a paper, as the instructor will simply assess whether they have passed (or failed) the course. PhD students who wish to write a term paper on the course topic must agree the topic with the professor. The paper should be between 5,000 and 6,000 words long. Master's students must produce a final position paper of no more than 2 pages in Italian or English on one of the topics covered during the course (50%) (contact the professor). More detailed information on the course requirements will be provided on the first day of the course.
Riferimenti bibliografici
Textbook and other Materials:
Reader prepared by the instructor. Papers to be downloaded from SNS’s Website and sent by the professor by mail before the start of the course to those enrolled to the course. Students are expected to read the compulsory readings before each session.
SOME EXAMPLES
Session 1:
Readings:
Jens, Rydgren (2018), The Radical Right: An Introduction, The Oxford Handbook of the Radical right, Oxford.
A Lavizzari (2025), The anti-gender movement and the populist radical right in Italy: a symbiotic relationship, European Journal of Politics and Gender 8 (1), 207-233
Session 3:
Readings:
Jasper JM (2011) Emotions and social movements: twenty years of theory and research. Annual Review of Sociology 37, 285–303.
Anti-gender politics and European democracies' legacies of exclusion and violence (2025), by C Roggeband, M Rawłuszko, P Meier, SD Fernández, E Lombardo, Women's Studies International Forum 112, 103151
Session 4:
Readings:
Manuela Caiani and Ondrej (eds.), 2018, Radical Right ‘movements- parties’, Routledge, ch1, ch2 and Conclusion.
Andrea L. P. Pirro and Pietro Castelli Gattinara (2018) Movement Parties of the Far Right: the organization and strategies of nativist collective actors. Mobilization: An International Quarterly: September 2018, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 367-383. (or the 2024 OUP handbook, introduction)
Ivan Tranfic, 2025, ‘From parish to parliament: resources and alliances of anti-gender movements in Southeast Europe’, East European Politics, Volume 41, Issue 2
Session 5:
Readings:
Caiani, M. and Tranfić, I. (2024) ‘Weaving the Transnational Anti-Gender Networks’, Mobilization
D Tronina (2024), Virtual Brokers and National Boundaries: Tracing Transnational Online Networks in European Anti-Gender Movements, Mobilization: An International Quarterly 29 (4), 487-506
Fangen, K., e Weisskircher, M. 2024 Reaching Out Beyond the National Border? How Far-Right Actors in Germany and Norway Evaluate Transnationalism. «Nations and Nationalism», n. 30(4), 683–699.
Session 7:
Readings:
Volk, Sabine (2026), Ethnography with the Far Right, Chapter for The Oxford Handbook of the Social Movements of the Far Right, edited by Manuela Caiani and Jens Rydgren. Oxford, Oxford University press.
‘Dear Mr. Neo-Nazi, can you please give me your informed consent so that I can quote your fascist tweet?’By Christian Fuchs, 2018, chapter in The Routledge Companion to Media and Activism, Routledge
Positionality and Ethics in studying the Far Right - Michal Garapich & Léonie de Jonge, 2026, edited by Manuela Caiani and Jens Rydgren. Oxford, Oxford University press.