Seminar: An ethnographic account of emotions and far right stigma: How barriers become goods for a movement

Abstract

Throughout my ethnographic fieldwork in the Swedish far right movement, nearly all activists whom I met shared some narrative of exclusion as a result of their views. Painful stories of job loss or alienation from one’s family reoccured throughout my interviews. Committed nativists must learn to handle the social sanctions of being associated with racism, violence, and fascism. How do far right activists negotiate the stigma of their ideology? How does far right stigma—initially a barrier to entry for some sympathisers—become a resource which the movement uses in their own framing and activists incorporate into their political identities? This article explores that process through the lens of emotional sociology. Based on a year and a half of fieldwork in Sweden’s non-parliamentary far right movement, I argue that activists learn the cultural narratives of “waking up”, the “language of love”, and “label games” in movement rituals. These narratives trigger emotional mechanisms which translate stigma, initially associated with shame, into the warmth of belonging. I conclude by reflecting on the ethical implications of engaging with far right activists’ traumatic senses of victimisation.