Despite the growing attention received by far-right political parties, social movements, and groups, we still lack a comprehensive conceptual and methodological toolkit to investigate its diverse expressions in the multi-organisational field.
Organised by C-REX and the ECPR Standing Group on Extremism and Democracy and tailored for PhD students, this Summer School will focus on the application of established research techniques to the study of far-right politics.
During the expertly curated five-day programme, you will be introduced to the concepts and theories explaining the conditions affecting far-right mobilisation and performance, and methods to tackle this phenomenon empirically. You will also cover the retrieval and effective management of diverse data sources.
What to expect
- Five teaching days (a total of 25 hours of didactic activities)
- Two keynote speeches
- Eight classes on the main theories and methods for the study of far-right politics
- Daily sessions for student presentations
- A day trip to Utøya
What you will learn
- Grasp the conceptual and theoretical foundations of far-right politics;
- Draw on comparative empirical expertise on far-right mobilisation, electoral performance, and violence;
- Understand the rationale and practices of a number of methods employed to study far-right politics, at the micro, meso, and macro levels;
- Learn to confidently rely on mixed-method approaches and methodological pluralist practices in your own research project;
- Present your research and receive feedback from leading scholars in the field;
- Network with junior and senior scholars.
Research methods
The Summer School will compare and combine diverse theories, critically assessing the merits of extant theoretical and empirical studies, and posing new research questions and deducing testable hypotheses.
It will also give special attention to the following research strategies and methods:
- Introduction to quantitative data sources for the study of far-right attitudes and violence;
- Elite interviews and life histories to address far-right activists’ perceptions and interpretations;
- Ethnographic approaches to investigate far-right activism;
- Protest event analysis to measure far-right mobilisation across time and space;
- Field experimental designs for the study of political attitudes;
- Social network analysis for the study of far-right connective structures online and offline.
Keynote speakers
- Sarah L. de Lange University of Amsterdam
- Michael Minkenberg European University Viadrina
Instructors
- Kathleen Blee, University of Pittsburgh
- Pietro Castelli Gattinara, Université Libre de Bruxelles & Sciences Po
- Sarah L. de Lange, University of Amsterdam
- Caterina Froio, Sciences Po
- Elisabeth Ivarsflaten, University of Bergen
- Anders R. Jupskås, C-REX, University of Oslo
- Andrea L. P. Pirro, University of Bologna
Convenors
- Pietro Castelli Gattinara, Université Libre de Bruxelles & Sciences Po
- Andrea L. P. Pirro, University of Bologna