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Content archived on 2024-05-28

Appropriating the 'Legitimate': Far-Right Discourses on Ecology

Objective

Modern societies have increasingly thematised themselves with ecological issues as their basic problems. However, the ‘legitimacy’ publicly ascribed to ecology renders its appropriation possible by groups widely viewed as ‘illegitimate’, enabling such actors to attract not only their core audience, but also a moderate wider public. This project analyses such appropriation, i.e. both the assessment of as well as the potential for self-legitimisation via ecological topics. This is done via an analysis of the politically relevant case of increasingly popular far-right populist and radical parties, and looser groups of organised intellectuals in Austria, Germany and Switzerland between 2001 and 2011.

Existing research on these actors has investigated, e.g. their stance on immigration but similarly extensive research into their public discourses on ecology does not exist. Little is known about ‘how’ and ‘why’ some far-right actors reject ecological issues, while others appropriate the protection of nature. Through triangulating quantitative corpus-linguistics (direct comparison of the investigated discourses on ecology), quantitative appropriation analysis (mapping assessments of and potential self-legitimation via ecology) and qualitative discourse analysis (how ecology is performed in detail), I ask: Which topics characterise far-right discourses on ecology? How are these performances affected as soon as these actors address a moderate wider public? (How) Do these actors draw on traditional right-wing narratives about the humans-and-nature relationship?

Successful appropriation of the ‘legitimate‘ topic of ecology might enable these actors to legitimise their core topics, attract a moderate wider public and transvalue (liberal-)democratic values. Thus, the project provides, for the first time and in a historical and comparative perspective, an analysis of such attempts, enabling a better understanding of increasingly successful far-right populists and radicals.

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Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Call for proposal

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FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF
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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MC-IEF - Intra-European Fellowships (IEF)

Coordinator

HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITAET ZU BERLIN
EU contribution
€ 168 794,40
Address
UNTER DEN LINDEN 6
10117 Berlin
Germany

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Region
Berlin Berlin Berlin
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

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