The Ethics of Researching the Far Right: Critical Approaches and Reflections(Racism, Resistance and Social Change)

At a time when far, radical, and extreme-right politics are becoming increasingly mainstream globally - sometimes with deadly consequences - research in these fields is essential to understand the most effective ways to combat these dangerous ideologies. Yet engaging with texts and movements that do physical and verbal violence raises a number of urgent ethical issues. Until recently, this has remained understudied, as scholarship on the far right rarely delves explicitly and critically into the ethics of research. This book seeks to remedy this significant gap in an otherwise extensive and growing literature. Originating from a workshop series in 2020, in which an international group of academics at various career stages shared the ethical challenges and best practices they had developed in their research, this edited collection draws together insights from these ongoing conversations, offering urgent critical reflections on key ethical issues.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Part I: What’s in a name 1. What the far right is(n’t) – Omran Shroufi 2. Race, racism, and the far right: critical reflections for the field – Kurt Sengul 3. When racism seems to be the hardest word: critical reflections from studying the Lega (Nord) – George Newth 4. When the far right experiences violence: our ethical duty to the othered – Ryan Switzer 5. Ecofascism, far-right ecologism and neo-Malthusianism – Miranda Jeanne Marie Iossifidis Part II: Positionality, standpoint, and intersectionality 6. ‘Far right studies’ and the unbearable whiteness of being – Aurelien Mondon 7. Safety and silence: oral history, far right research and the paradox of the ‘vocal minority’ – Imo Kaufman 8. On the incompleteness of ethnography: embracing and navigating failure as a principle in research on the far right – Balša Lubarda 9. Ethnographic empathy and research ethics as methodological whiteness – Catherine Tebaldi and Rae Jereza 10. Emotions in methodology: resisting violent ideological structures in the knowledge-production of extremisms – Elsa Bengtsson Meuller 11. Reflections on researching armed Nazis as an unarmed left-wing Jew: politics, privilege, and practical concerns – Aaron Winter Part III: The haunting past: memory and far right studies 12. Heritage, archaeology, ancestry, and the far right – David Farrell-Banks and Lorna-Jane Richardson 13. Another way to do ethics: uses of the landscape in the far-right cultural milieu and the ethics of researching them – Andrew Fergus Wilson 14. Researching memory and heritage during a culture war – Meghan Tinsley, Ruth Ramsden-Karelse, Chloe Peacock, and Sadia Habib 15. Archiving the extreme: ethical challenges in sharing, researching, and teaching – Daniel Jones 16. Researching racism in racist times - Jean Beaman Part IV: Care and safety 17. How do you respond when you feel under threat? A reflective exploration into my experience with the far right online – Alice Sibley 18. Community building as a response to care in studying the far right – Kayla Preston 19. Negotiating contradiction in success and safety: a consideration of environmental constraints on risk management – Antonia Vaughan 20. Spectre: covert research in digital far-right ‘red zones’ – Jackson Wood 21. Navigating a feminist ethics of care, ethnographic methods, and academic activism in researching men’s rights and the far right: a researcher’s struggles – Luc Cousineau Part V: Complications of engaging far-right participants and formers 22. Ethics of listening: between criticism and empathy in oral history interviews and politically charged research contexts - Vanessa Tautter 23. Harms of the compassion narrative: ethical considerations regarding stories of disengagement from white supremacist movements – Joan Braune 24. Voices from the past: a psychosocial reflection on interacting with a far-right activist - Yutaka Yoshida 25. Interviewing the ‘unlovable’: on the challenges of conducting feminist research on far-right women – Katherine Williams 26. Examining far-right empowerment experiences using Youtube and Parler data: managing researcher safety and ethical and methodological requirements – Carina Hoerst and John Drury Part VI: Activism and dissemination 27. Critically examining the role of the scholar in policymaking on the far right – Richard McNeil-Willson, Michael Vaughan, and Michael Zeller 28. Critical reflexivity and research on state responses to the far right – Anna A. Meier 29. An anti-racist scholar-activist ethic: working in service to racial justice – Remi Joseph-Salisbury, Laura Connelly, and Aurelien Mondon 30. The far right from the underside of history: decolonising far right studies – Isis Giraldo 31. How should journalists engage with the far right? – Gary Younge 32. Researching the far right: towards an ethics of talking ‘about’ – Katy Brown

About the Author :
Antonia Vaughan is a PhD student in Politics at the University of Bath. Joan Braune is Lecturer in Philosophy at Gonzaga University. Meghan Tinsley is Presidential Fellow in Sociology at the University of Manchester. Aurelien Mondon is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Bath.

Review :
'The ethics of researching the Far Right is perhaps the first investigation into the moral responsibility we have in documenting the threat that fascism presents. This expertly edited volume is one of the most important interventions ever made into this field and should be required reading for anyone documenting the far-right.' Shane Burley, author of Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism 'A timely and much needed collection. It highlights the ongoing necessity - as well as the huge complexity - of reflective and critical research on the contemporary far right, especially as it becomes increasingly normalised and mainstreamed. A fantastic resource for scholars and students conducting systematic research on the far right across a wide range of social science disciplines.' Professor Michal Krzyzanowski, Uppsala University, Sweden 'At last! A straight-on discussion of ethical quagmires in studies of the far-right, and a guide to navigating issues of political impact, safety, terminology, and more. A must-read for scholars and students.' Kathleen Blee, co-author of Out of Hiding: Extremist White Supremacy and How It Can Be Stopped (2024)