Far-Right Ecologism and the Mainstreaming of Exclusionary Environmentalism

The Sociology Research Seminar invites you to a timely discussion about how Far-Right politics penetrated local environmentalist movements, its ideological building blocks, and its dangers for democracy.

Date: 5th December, 18:00

Online event, link: https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fteams.microsoft.com%2Fl%2Fmeetup-join%2F19%253ameeting_YjBiMGNjNTUtNjgwYy00MTk1LTlkNTAtOGQzMzFiM2Y2YTQ5%2540thread.v2%2F0%3Fcontext%3D%257B%2522Tid%2522%253A%25225a4863ed-40c8-4fd5-8298-fbfdb7f13095%2522%252C%2522Oid%2522%253A%2522e570a07b-296d-4961-9673-ca317e56bea3%2522%257D%26fbclid%3DIwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR2uhdbu5jEC2cC-_AUEY2jg4ePHiqFWYmnnvB6ZK9S_ozawDBHhmmKgv44_aem_wlglKnRavUxERxAOM5WlzA&h=AT06o3jSBaU9egMpqh1uFVXvZ5ccyCF_0IByAiH_YZuoqQ13bjTjC2MXyGohblEvrQHYWrTCByqx-xmkDfwvH35Jl6Y-xupJH-xk_i-7_Qj0LScvGcqZteodzssyTEyUdgWD&__tn__=R*F

Far-Right Ecologism explains how the ongoing mainstreaming of the far right has prompted greater engagement with a range of topics, including the environment. Behind the façade of vote-winning strategies, the far right has provided a substantive ideological engagement with the natural environment over the century. Departing from the romanticist and occasionally nationalist bent of early green thought and the perceived nexus of pristine nature and cultural purity, Far-Right Ecologism has ideologically adopted the green elements of other ideologies, such as conservatism and fascism, but also of those considered to be “thin-centred”, such as nationalism and populism. Building on the findings from different datasets, including the ethnography recently published by Routledge (“Far-Right Ecologism: Environmental Politics and the Far Right in Hungary and Poland”) and several journal articles, the purpose of this presentation is twofold. First, to identify the ‘morphology’ of far-right ecologism, that is, its ideological building blocks, key arguments and convictions and second, to examine the extent to which some of these ideas can be found in activist circles or the “mainstream” politics of nature.

Balša Lubarda is a MSCA Postdoctoral Fellow at University Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona). He is also the Head of Research at Damar Institute (Montenegro), previously serving as the Fulbright Fellow at University of California, Berkeley (United States), Global Teaching Felow at University Babes-Bolyai (Romania) and the Head of Ideology Research Unit at the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right (United Kingdom). Lubarda is the author of the book “Far-Right Ecologism: Environmental Politics and the Far Right in Hungary and Poland” (Routledge, 2023), ethnography of far-right environmental activist communities, based on his doctoral thesis defended at Central European University in Austria (Summa Cum Laude, 2021) and one of the editors of the forthcoming volume “Global Far Right Ecologies: Trends, Issues and Challenges” (Routledge). His scholarly articles appeared in Nature Climate Change, Environmental Politics, Environmental Values, Environmental Education, Sociologia Ruralis, Journal of Language and Politics and the Journal of Political Ideologies.