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Publications (10 of 75) Show all publications
Merrill, S., Gardell, M. & Lindgren, S. (2024). How "the left" meme: Analyzing taboo in the Internet memes of r/DankLeft. New Media and Society
Open this publication in new window or tab >>How "the left" meme: Analyzing taboo in the Internet memes of r/DankLeft
2024 (English)In: New Media and Society, ISSN 1461-4448, E-ISSN 1461-7315Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

This article explores how "the left" meme and the character and emotional reception of taboo-breaking therein via the case of r/DankLeft—a USA-centric Marxist, Anarchist, and Democratic Socialist Internet meme community. It asks: what themes do popular r/DankLeft Internet memes relate to, how does taboo feature within popular r/DankLeft Internet memes, and can any differences in the ways in which taboo-related r/DankLeft Internet memes are received be discerned. In turn, it carries out a thematic analysis of 366 popular memes, a multimodal critical discourse analysis of 41 taboo-related popular memes, and a comparative sentiment analysis of the comments these and other memes have received in r/DankLeft. The article finds that popular memes in r/DankLeft primarily relate to perceived threats to its community of users. It also shows that taboo-breaking does feature in r/DankLeft memes and that when it does correlative patterns emerge in terms of popularity and emotional reception.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sage Publications, 2024
Keywords
Digital culture, discourse analysis, Internet memes, left-wing, radical left, Reddit, sentiment analysis, taboo-breaking, thematic analysis
National Category
Social Sciences Interdisciplinary Communication Studies Other Humanities not elsewhere specified
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-524351 (URN)10.1177/14614448241232144 (DOI)
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2019-03351
Available from: 2024-03-01 Created: 2024-03-01 Last updated: 2024-03-04Bibliographically approved
Krzyzanowski, M., Wodak, R., Bradby, H., Gardell, M., Kallis, A., Krzyżanowska, N., . . . Rydgren, J. (2023). Discourses and practices of the ‘New Normal’: Towards an interdisciplinary research agenda on crisis and the normalization of anti- and post‑democratic action. Journal of Language and Politics, 22(4), 415-437
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Discourses and practices of the ‘New Normal’: Towards an interdisciplinary research agenda on crisis and the normalization of anti- and post‑democratic action
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2023 (English)In: Journal of Language and Politics, ISSN 1569-2159, E-ISSN 1569-9862, Vol. 22, no 4, p. 415-437Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This position paper argues for an interdisciplinary agenda relating crises to on-going processes of normalization of anti- and post-democratic action. We call for exploring theoretically and empirically the ‘new normal’ logic introduced into public imagination on the back of various crises, including the recent ‘Refugee Crisis’ in Europe, COVID-19 pandemic, or the still ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. Gathering researchers of populism, extremism, discrimination, and other formats of anti- and post-democratic action, we propose investigating how, why, and under which conditions, discourses and practices underlying normalization processes re-emerge to challenge the liberal democratic order. We argue exploring the multiple variants of ‘the new normal’ related to crises, historically and more recently. We are interested in how and why these open pathways for politics of exclusion, inequality, xenophobia and other patterns of anti- and post-democratic action while deepening polarization and radicalization of society as well as propelling far-right politics and ideologies.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2023
Keywords
mainstreaming, far right, anti- & post-democratic action, practice, normalization, the New Normal, nativism, discourse, crisis
National Category
Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Research subject
Media and Communication Studies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-508391 (URN)10.1075/jlp.23024.krz (DOI)001041383100001 ()
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2019–03354Swedish Research Council, 2021–02321Uppsala University
Available from: 2023-07-31 Created: 2023-07-31 Last updated: 2023-09-04Bibliographically approved
Gardell, M. (2023). Lone Wolf Race Warriors. In: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion: . Oxford: Oxford University Press
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Lone Wolf Race Warriors
2023 (English)In: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023Chapter in book (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

The term “lone wolf” is a metaphor that began to be used by advocates of White radical nationalism in the United States in the 1970s to name unorganized individuals who committed violent crime, including murder, to further White racist and White radical nationalist aims. In the 1980s and 1990s, seminal radical nationalist thinkers, including James Mason, William Pierce, Louis Beam, Tom Metzger, and David Lane, incorporated lone wolf violence as part of decentralized revolutionary tactics, often, although not exclusively, named “leaderless resistance.” Contemplating the fact that White racist organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan, had not been able to safeguard the privileges, resources, and powers long attached to Whiteness by US law, Mason, Pierce, Beam, Metzger, and Lane concluded that White racist organizations not only were too dysfunctional but also far too visible, and therefore easy to monitor, infiltrate, and neutralize. While the White nationalist cause still needed public figures and organizations to attract and educate new cadres, armed White racist resistance had to be decentralized and leaderless. White nationalist leaders should issue generalized calls to arms but give no direct orders and have no knowledge about who was planning to do what. The perpetrators would themselves be responsible for preparing and executing their violent crime and securing adequate resources. The lone wolf should go under the radar and melt into the general population by avoiding racist organizations and attributes and should never tell anyone about his—White racist lone wolves are so far predominantly male—opinions and activities. The perpetrator would risk his life or freedom but be awarded heroic status in the White nationalist hall of fame. To White nationalist leaders, the tactics are cost effective. Should the lone wolf succeed, the violence would benefit the cause; should he fail, he could bring down no one. During the Internet age, the lone wolf tactics spread through viral marketing and globalized media throughout what White nationalists call the “once White world” in America, Europe, South Africa, and Oceania. The tactics had by then evolved into two schools or types of lone wolves: the lone racist serial offender, who seeks to avoid getting caught and operates in the shadows for an extended period of time; and the mega-impact lone wolf, who wants to get everyone’s attention by one sensational attack, in which the perpetrator is more likely to die or get caught during, or immediately after, the big assault—a sacrifice that is likely to increase the fame of the perpetrator. Both lone wolf types count on the media to amplify their impact and heroic status, and to spread the message of the White revolution to which lone wolves seek to contribute. Lone wolves inspire copycats, and the number of attacks escalated during the first decades of the new millennium. In early 2020, the increase of lone wolf violence was interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, as restrictions closed attackers’ favorite targets, for example, mosques, synagogues, churches, and schools, and imposed curfews and banned public gatherings.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023
Keywords
lone wolf, fascism, white radical nationalism, violence, white genocide, great replacement, leaderless resistance, hero politics, racism, accelerationism
National Category
Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)
Research subject
History of Religions
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-497377 (URN)10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.1067 (DOI)9780199340378 (ISBN)
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2016-04758
Available from: 2023-02-27 Created: 2023-02-27 Last updated: 2023-02-28Bibliographically approved
Manga, E., Gardell, M., Behtoui, A., León Rosales, R. & Ekelund, A. (2022). Att mäta rasism. Norsborg: Mångkulturellt centrum
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Att mäta rasism
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2022 (Swedish)Book (Other academic)
Abstract [sv]

Rasism har långtgående konsekvenser för människors livsvillkor och för samhällets demokratiska grund. Samtidigt är rasism inte en naturordning utan ett politiskt problem som kan påverkas och på sikt åtgärdas. För att förändra rasism krävs kunskapsbaserat arbete och ändamålsenliga uppföljningsverktyg. Vi behöver förstå vad rasism är, hur dess mekanismer fungerar och hur den inverkar på den ojämlika fördelningen av status, resurser, möjligheter och sårbarhet på befolkningsnivå.Att mäta rasism utan att reproducera rasism är dock en utmanande uppgift. Rasism refererar till raser, en form av social kategorisering som på vissa plan övergivits men som samtidigt har påtagliga effekter för olika gruppers ojämlika livsvillkor. Som objekt för mätning är raser besvärliga då ras definieras kontextuellt och relationellt och ständigt omförhandlas. Dessutom har raskategoriseringar och rasdifferentierad statistik ett mörkt förflutet som kärnan i den vetenskapliga rasismens och den statliga rashygienens historia. I denna bok undersöks frågan om att mäta rasism från en rad teoretiska och historiska synvinklar. Hur kan rasism definieras? Vad är rasbegreppets historia? Vilken roll har statistik spelat i statliga styrsystem? Är våra identiteter fasta, eller skiftande? Vad hände med försöken att införa jämlikhetsdata på kommunal nivå? Hur långt kan man komma med befintliga metoder för att mäta antisvart rasism på arbetsmarknaden? Boken avslutas med att presentera att konkret förslag på hur rasismens effekter för olika befolkningsgrupper skulle kunna mätas utan att först fastställa och utgå från förbestämda raskategorier: Balingsholmsmodellen. Denna metod kan användas för att återkommande undersöka hur rasism inverkar på människors livsvillkor på nationell och regional nivå.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Norsborg: Mångkulturellt centrum, 2022. p. 200
Keywords
Rasism, rasifiering, ojämlikhet, diskriminering, mätbarhet
National Category
Other Social Sciences Other Humanities History Philosophy, Ethics and Religion
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-487860 (URN)978-91-86429-61-4 (ISBN)
Projects
Metodologiska laboratorier – hur skapa etiskt och vetenskapligt hållbara metoder att mäta diskriminering på grund av etnicitet, hudfärg och religion? VR 2016-03663.
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2016-03663
Note

Edda Manga och Mattias Gardell är både författare till enskilda kapitel och redaktörer för boken.

Available from: 2022-11-03 Created: 2022-11-03 Last updated: 2022-11-08Bibliographically approved
Gardell, M. (2022). Esoteric Nordic Fascism: The Second Coming of Hitler and the Idea of the People. In: Nicola Karcher & Markus Lundström (Ed.), Nordic Fascism: Fragments of an Entangled History (pp. 138-165). London: Routledge
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Esoteric Nordic Fascism: The Second Coming of Hitler and the Idea of the People
2022 (English)In: Nordic Fascism: Fragments of an Entangled History / [ed] Nicola Karcher & Markus Lundström, London: Routledge, 2022, p. 138-165Chapter in book (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Following the post-1945 fall of state-institutionalised fascism, a segment of the remaining faithful who refused to change skin sought to reconcile the expectations of fascism's infallibility with experienced reality by turning inwards into a world of esoteric mysticism. This chapter explores three articulations of occult Nordicism seminal to the wider political landscape of Nordic radical nationalism after 1945: (1) the Ario-Hindu pathworks of Miguel Serrano, the sage of hitlerismo esoterico, and Savitri Devi, “Hitler's Priestess”; (2) the retrotopian heathenry of racist Norse paganism; and (3) the dark undercurrent of extreme, black, occult pagan metal. The first two are esoteric ideologies, construing the Nordic through esoteric teachings and practice, while the third is an unruly scene of dark culture in which the Nordic is construed through arts and music. Beyond its empirical explorations, this chapter seeks to contribute to the conversation of comparative fascism studies by reflecting theoretically on populism, elitism, and the role of “the People” in fascist thought and practice.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
London: Routledge, 2022
Series
Routledge Studies in Fascism and the Far Right
Keywords
Fascism, occultism, esotericism, paganism, radical nationalism
National Category
History of Religions
Research subject
History of Religions
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-487867 (URN)10.4324/9781003193005-7 (DOI)9781003193005 (ISBN)9781032040301 (ISBN)9781032044002 (ISBN)
Projects
White Nostalgia. The Politics of Home and Belonging
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2021-02862
Available from: 2022-11-03 Created: 2022-11-03 Last updated: 2023-02-15Bibliographically approved
Gardell, M. (2021). Lone Wolf Race Warriors and White Genocide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Lone Wolf Race Warriors and White Genocide
2021 (English)Book (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

When Brenton Tarrant live-streamed his massacre of 51 Muslims in Christchurch, NZ, in March 2019, he was but one in a series of lone-acting white men committing violent crime to further the radical white nationalist aim to save the white race from extinction and establish a white ethnostate. From where did white nationalists get the notion of an ongoing white genocide? Why should “resistance” against a perceived invasion of “white” territory be launched by individual “lone wolves” massacring non-combatants they had no prior relation to? How could slaughtering children be construed as a heroic act that a perpetrator wants to broadcast to the world? Based on a collection of interviews with lone wolves, their victims, and supporters, and a close reading of lone wolf, fascist, and radical nationalist material and communication, this Element provides answers to these and adjacent questions of importance.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. p. 120
Keywords
Lone wolf, fascism, political violence, radical nationalism, violent racism
National Category
Social Sciences Interdisciplinary Other Humanities not elsewhere specified
Research subject
Sociology; History; Political Science; Gender Studies; History of Religions; Ethnology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-444164 (URN)DOI: 10.1017/9781108609760 (DOI)978-1-108-71113-5 (ISBN)
Projects
Angry White Men? A study of violent racism, correlations between organized and unorganized hate crime and the affective dimensions of ultranationalism
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2016-04758
Available from: 2021-06-04 Created: 2021-06-04 Last updated: 2021-06-07Bibliographically approved
Gardell, M. (2021). ‘The Girl Who Was Chased by Fire’: Violence and Passion in Contemporary Swedish Fascist Fiction. Fascism: Journal of Comparative Fascist Studies, 10(1), 166-185
Open this publication in new window or tab >>‘The Girl Who Was Chased by Fire’: Violence and Passion in Contemporary Swedish Fascist Fiction
2021 (English)In: Fascism: Journal of Comparative Fascist Studies, ISSN 2211-6249, E-ISSN 2211-6257, Vol. 10, no 1, p. 166-185Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Fascism invites its adherents to be part of something greater than themselves, invoking their longing for honor and glory, passion and heroism. An important avenue for articulating its affective dimension is cultural production. This article investigates the role of violence and passion in contemporary Swedish-language fascist fiction. The protagonist is typically a young white man or woman who wakes up to the realities of the ongoing white genocide through being exposed to violent crime committed by racialized aliens protected by the System. Seeking revenge, the protagonist learns how to be a man or meets her hero, and is introduced to fascist ideology and the art of killing. Fascist literature identifies aggression and ethnical cleansing as altruistic acts of love. With its passionate celebration of violence, fascism hails the productivity of destructivity, and the life-bequeathing aspects of death, which is at the core of fascism’s urge for national rebirth.

Keywords
Sweden, fascist culture, fascist fiction, violence, heroism, death, love, radical nationalism
National Category
Other Humanities Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-447147 (URN)10.1163/22116257-10010004 (DOI)000664896600007 ()
Projects
Arga vit än? HS 2016-04758 Vetenskapsrådet
Available from: 2021-06-23 Created: 2021-06-23 Last updated: 2021-09-16Bibliographically approved
Krzyzanowski, M., Ekman, M., Nilsson, P.-E., Gardell, M. & Christensen, C. (2021). Uncivility, Racism, and Populism: Discourses and Interactive Practices in Anti- and Post-Democratic Communication. Nordicom Review, 42(S1), 3-15
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Uncivility, Racism, and Populism: Discourses and Interactive Practices in Anti- and Post-Democratic Communication
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2021 (English)In: Nordicom Review, ISSN 1403-1108, E-ISSN 2001-5119, Vol. 42, no S1, p. 3-15Article in journal, Editorial material (Other academic) Published
National Category
Media and Communications Political Science
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-437572 (URN)10.2478/nor-2021-0003 (DOI)000626756700001 ()2-s2.0-85102449682 (Scopus ID)
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2016-05464Swedish Research Council, 2019-03354
Available from: 2021-03-11 Created: 2021-03-11 Last updated: 2023-09-01Bibliographically approved
Wolgast, S., Molina, I. & Gardell, M. (2018). Antisvart rasism och diskriminering på arbetsmarknaden: Skillnader mellan afrosvenskar och den övriga befolkningen i bruttolön, disponibel inkomst och möjlighet att göra karriär på den svenska arbetsmarknaden. Stockholm: Länsstyrelsen i Stockholms län
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Antisvart rasism och diskriminering på arbetsmarknaden: Skillnader mellan afrosvenskar och den övriga befolkningen i bruttolön, disponibel inkomst och möjlighet att göra karriär på den svenska arbetsmarknaden
2018 (Swedish)Report (Refereed)
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: Länsstyrelsen i Stockholms län, 2018. p. 61
Keywords
Rasism, diskriminering, afrosvenskar, totalbefolkningen, arbetsmarknad
National Category
Social Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-371487 (URN)978-91-7281-845-3 (ISBN)
Available from: 2018-12-21 Created: 2018-12-21 Last updated: 2019-01-10Bibliographically approved
Gardell, M. (2018). Moskéers och muslimska församlingars utsatthet och säkerhet i Sverige 2018. Uppsala: Centrum för mångvetenskaplig forskning om rasism, Uppsala universitet
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Moskéers och muslimska församlingars utsatthet och säkerhet i Sverige 2018
2018 (Swedish)Report (Other academic)
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Uppsala: Centrum för mångvetenskaplig forskning om rasism, Uppsala universitet, 2018. p. 49
Keywords
Moské, angrepp, hatbrott, säkerhet, utsatthet, samverkan
National Category
Religious Studies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-362552 (URN)
Available from: 2018-10-06 Created: 2018-10-06 Last updated: 2018-10-12Bibliographically approved
Projects
Angry white men? A study of violent racism, correlations between organized and unorganized hate crime and the affective dimensions of ultranationalism [2016-04758_VR]; Uppsala UniversityWhite Nostalgia. The Politics of Home and Belonging [2021-02862_VR]; Uppsala University
Organisations
Identifiers
ORCID iD: ORCID iD iconorcid.org/0000-0003-2491-1995

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