Researching Far-right Movements: Ethics, Methodologies, and Qualitative Inquiries

As extreme and far right movements become increasingly widespread in many countries, the sociology of social movements is called to confront them. This book addresses the specific challenges entailed by the empirical study of such movements, presenting case studies from Japan, Thailand, England, France, Italy, the USA, and Turkey. Based on empirical fieldwork, the chapters explore the ethics and politics of researching far right movements, considering the researcher's reflexivity and the methodological issues raised by being emotionally linked to a research object that affirms and strives for values that differ markedly from those of the researcher. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology and politics with interests in social movements and research methods.

Emanuele Toscano is Researcher in Sociology in the Department of Technology, Communication and Society at the Università degli Studi Guglielmo Marconi, Italy.