Dr Imogen Richards will be presenting timely research on ‘The Far-right in Western Europe and Australia’. See below for details and to register.

Date And Time: Thursday 9 May 2019, 4:30 pm

Research Seminar

The Far-right in Western Europe and Australia: A Philosophical and Political-economic Analysis of Identitarian and Patriot Collectives

Dr Imogen Richards, Deakin University

Far-right revolutionary ideas disseminated in global online media embody cross-national aims that can only be understood with attention to their philosophical underpinnings. Through attention to this media and its philosophical and political-economic frames, our project seeks to analyse the emergence of contemporary Western European ‘Identitarian’ movements in comparison with recently active ‘Patriot’ collectives in Australia.

This investigation begins from the premise that European Identitarian movements are influenced by ethno-cultural canons of the Nouvelle Droite (or European ‘New Right’), in addition to the Eurasianist philosophy of Alexandr Dugin. Australian Patriot individuals and organisations, on the other hand, are proposed to draw inspiration from avowedly National Socialist authors and the politicking and propagandising of Adolf Hitler himself. We then consider that Australian entities’ extreme social conservativism and ethnicity-related xenophobia may be underwritten by a desire to return to a pre-neoliberal political-economic environment similar to Atlantic Fordism; excluding the explicit endorsement of high unionisation and progressive tax rates. From a comparative perspective, the political economy of Identitarianism is explored for its embrace of capitalism and commodification, including through Identitarians’ promotion of international trade and sale of merchandise.

Speaker bio

Imogen is a lecturer in criminology at Deakin University and member of the Alfred Deakin Research Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, researching in the areas of social media, extremism, counter/terrorism, and public criminology. She has written on issues related to online extremism, with a focus on comparative and cross-disciplinary approaches to online research. Her wider research focus extends to the performance of security, theories of violence, and drugs and crime. Her work has appeared in Critical Studies on Terrorism, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, and the International Journal of Cyber Criminology, among others.

Light refreshments provided

Register here.