Digitala Vetenskapliga Arkivet

Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
"I’m tired of being sh-t on for being white”: Collective identity construction in the Alt-Right movement
Swedish Defence University.
2017 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (One Year)), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

This thesis examines collective identity construction within the extreme right movement Alt-Right that gained public recognition during the 2016 US presidential campaign. Despite it being an increasingly stigmatized practice to openly articulate racist ideas in contemporary society, the Alt-Right movement managed to gain a following by doing just that. As collective identity funds collective action, a discourse analysis in line with Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s strand of discourse theory was conducted to understand what encourages and facilitates participation in the movement’s activities. The material consisted of articles connected to three different factions of the Alt-Right published online and the subsequent comments generated by these. The findings indicate that the collective identity constructed in the Alt-Right is white, masculine and heterosexual. This identity is constructed and reified through contrasting themselves against racialized and gendered Others. It is also reinforced by signs of intelligence, enlightenment, bravery and a sense of rebelliousness and fun linked to the collective identity. The Others are primarily constructed as the Jewish community, non-white groups, women and the LGBTQ community. The use of new information and communications technology facilitated the construction, in allowing participants to create virtual communities online where the collective identity was constructed and reified.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2017. , p. 51
Keywords [en]
Extreme right, social movements, gender, discourse analysis, collective identity
National Category
Political Science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:fhs:diva-6830OAI: oai:DiVA.org:fhs-6830DiVA, id: diva2:1121562
Subject / course
Political Science with a focus on Security Studies (Master's programme in Politics and War)
Educational program
Master's programme in Politics and War
Supervisors
Available from: 2017-07-12 Created: 2017-07-11 Last updated: 2017-07-12Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

Jessica Garpvall, master's thesis(3026 kB)2735 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 3026 kBChecksum SHA-512
67cfccbdc2a995bf9824ea11d1bb6b26be220a98163fca533ef2c79e717c00212ba197ecd9f4f5b875f7265f56e355b1045793094edbccf4d7c386aa7ca8088f
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

By organisation
Swedish Defence University
Political Science

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 2741 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

urn-nbn

Altmetric score

urn-nbn
Total: 6279 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf