Imagining Far-right Terrorism: Violence, Immigration, and the Nation State in Contemporary Western Europe

Imagining Far-right Terrorism examines the narrative imagination of far-right terrorism in contemporary Western Europe, focusing on the National Socialist Underground (NSU) in Germany, racist violence in Sweden and Norway, and elite practices of narrative control. It breaks new ground in research on far-right terrorism by tracing its narrative traces across time, public spaces of contestation, and national borders.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 234 pages
Publication date: 04 February 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Imagining Far-right Terrorism delves into the realm of far-right terrorism as a subject of narrative imagination in contemporary Western Europe, a topic that often evades straightforward categorization. While Western European societies tend to resist labeling far-right and racist violence as terrorism, the underlying reasons for this reluctance remain largely unexplored. This book specifically focuses on the intricate case of the National Socialist Underground (NSU) in Germany, as well as notable instances of racist violence in Sweden and Norway. By examining the narratives surrounding these incidents, the author aims to shed light on the limitations of perceiving such violence as far-right terrorism. Drawing from a diverse range of empirical sources, the author analyzes the ways in which elite practices of narrative control shape perceptions of the liberal-democratic order, juxtaposed against its two constitutive others: the far-right and racialized minorities. Positioned within the scholarly tradition of critical terrorism studies, this book pioneers new ground in research on far-right terrorism by tracing its narrative threads across time, public spaces of contention, and national borders. Moreover, it incorporates material and findings originally written in German, Swedish, and Norwegian, which were previously unavailable in English, expanding the accessibility of this important volume to students and researchers in the fields of terrorism and political violence, right-wing extremism, European politics, and communication studies.

Weight: 384g
Dimension: 156 x 234 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367697051