Social Network Analysis

Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe.

The notion of « civil society » refers either to citizens as opposed to the state but also citizens working in non-profit. In the newly elected assembly, it refers to a mixed profile of private and public expertise, which is not representative of the French society.

Where Is the Civil Society

Although the subject of extreme right virtual community formation is often discussed, an online ‘sense of community’ among right-wing extremists has not been systematically analysed. It is argued that to study this phenomenon and to understand its backgrounds and function, the offline and online experiences and actions of those involved need to be taken into account. For this purpose, qualitative data has been collected on the web forum ‘Stormfront’, supplemented by extensive online interviews with eleven of its members. It is demonstrated that those experiencing stigmatisation in offline social life regard the forum as a virtual community that functions as an online refuge, whereas those who – due to special circumstances – do not experience offline stigmatisation do not display an online sense of community. It is concluded that offline stigmatisation underlies virtual community formation by Dutch right-wing extremists. Because this mechanism may have broader significance, additional hypotheses for future research are formulated.

“Stormfront Is Like a Second Home to Me”: On Virtual Community Formation by Right-Wing Extremists

The murder of the film director Theo van Gogh provoked a free speech controversy in Denmark. The Danish Liberal Party decided to give its annual liberty
prize to the Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Ali wrote the manuscript for the
director’s recent film Submission, which portrayed the sexual domination of
Muslim women in a controversial manner. While – almost – unanimously
condemning the murder, a number of Danish Muslims criticized the party and
called for stricter legislation on religious blasphemy, arguing that freedom of
speech was regularly misused to slander Islamic religion and the Prophet. Their
timing was bad. It invariably linked the discussion of freedom of speech with
the assumed condolence of murder. Also, the choice of van Gogh’s film as a test
case was particularly disastrous in Denmark. In a speech the Prime Minister
wondered howwe have come to a point where giving a freedom prize to a person who
fights the subjection of women is regarded as a provocation. Those who call
it provocative have not understood the core of the Danish freedom of
speech. Freedom of speech in our country means that you can openly and
freely criticize anything and anybody.

The particular universalism of a Nordic civic nation: common values, state religion and Islam in Danish political culture: Per Mouritsen

With large social media platforms coming under increasing pressure to deplatform far-right users, the Alternative Technology movement (Alt-Tech) emerged as a new digital support infrastructure for ...

'Welcome to #GabFam': Far-right virtual community on Gab

This paper analyses the social media networks and content of four Australian parties, assessing their relationship to the far right at the time of the 2019 Australian federal election. Using social...

Social networks and digital organisation: far right parties at the 2019 Australian federal election

Current research on visual media and the far right creates two expectations: that memes play an increasingly salient role in the far right’s digital visual culture, and that the visual and particip...

Sharing the hate? Memes and transnationality in the far right’s digital visual culture

In the twenty years since the adoption of United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 on “women, peace and security” (in 2000), civil society organisations have continued to shape the agenda's ...

Jordan McSwiney

Papers

'Welcome to #GabFam': Far-right virtual community on Gab

Social networks and digital organisation: far right parties at the 2019 Australian federal election

Sharing the hate? Memes and transnationality in the far right’s digital visual culture

The Social Life of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda: A Digital Social Network Analysis

Do Australian parties represent