The Annoying Difference: The Emergence of Danish Neonationalism, Neoracism, and Populism in the Post-1989 World

The Muhammad cartoon crisis of 2005−2006 in Denmark caught the world by surprise as the growing hostilities toward Muslims had not been widely noticed. Through the methodologies of media anthropology, cultural studies, and communication studies, this book brings together more than thirteen years of research on three significant historical media events in order to show the drastic changes and emerging fissures in Danish society and to expose the politicization of Danish news journalism, which has consequences for the political representation and everyday lives of ethnic minorities in Denmark.

Table of Contents:
List of Tables and Figures Preface List of Acronyms Chapter 1. Introduction Chapter 2. The Emergence of Neonationalism and Neoracism in the Post-1989-World Chapter 3. Newspaper Campaign Unlike Any Other Chapter 4. The End of Tolerance? Chapter 5. The Danish Cultural World of Unbridgeable Differences Chapter 6. The Mona Sheikh Story 2001 Chapter 7. Mediated Muslims: Jyllands-Posten’s Coverage of Islam 2001 Chapter 8. The Response from Muslim Readers and Viewers Chapter 9. The Original Spin: Freedom of Speech as Danish News Management Chapter 10. A Political Struggle in the Field of Journalism Chapter 11. The Narrative of “Incompatibility” and The Politics of Negative Dialogues in the Danish Cartoon Affair Chapter 12. “We Have To Explain Why We Exist” Chapter 13. Conclusion Appendix: Permissions References Index

About the Author :
Peter Hervik holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Copenhagen; an MPhil in International Migration and Ethnic Relations (IMER); and is a Professor in the Department of Culture and Global Studies at Aalborg University. He has done research and written extensively on the Danish media coverage of ethnic and Islamic minority issues as well as on the social construction of Yucatec Mayan identity in Mexico.

Review :
” [The author] provides an excellent and courageous account of why Denmark of all places would become a Scandinavian node for the mainstream naturalization and legitimation of populist right-wing discourses on ‘non-Western’ immigrants in general, and Muslim immigrants in particular…It is crucial reading for anyone interested in how the populist right-wing not only in Scandinavia, but throughout Western Europe, have come to be so prominent during the last twenty years.”  ·  Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale "Readers...will find in this book much that is informative and new and will be heartened that the attributes of the bright, tenacious and unstoppable [Danish] TV detective Sarah Lund can also be found within the Danish academy."  ·  Race & Class “[A] very important contribution to various debates on current Danish identity politics and more generally, on the developments of contemporary right-wing politics prevailing in Europe and the West.”  ·  Gunvor Jónsson, International Migration Institute (IMI), University of Oxford “The book offers an insightful background to the increased resistance towards ethnic minorities and the growing Islamophobia in Denmark. This development escalated with the Muhammad Cartoon Crisis that broke out in 2005 and later reverberated in different parts of the world.” ·  Anders Hellström, Malmö University