Race, Nature, Culture: Thinking the ‘post-racial’ through völkisch politics

Keywords: Völkisch movements, fascism, far-right, racism, ethno-nationalism, Nature, political geography
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 11:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 12:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 77

Abstract

Critical scholars have long observed how right-wing extremists reconfigure their racist rhetoric in relation to ‘mainstream’ or hegemonic discourses, for example shifting from an explicit focus on ‘race’ to a more coded emphasis on ‘culture’ or ‘civilisation’ (Balibar, 1991; Pred, 2000). At the same time, geographers and environmental philosophers have been attentive to the political (ab)uses of ‘Nature’, especially its facility in ‘naturalising’ particular forms of prejudice, hierarchy, and socio-spatial inequality (Daston and Vidal, 2004; Castree, 2013).

This paper explores how these two currents intersect in the case of the so-called ‘völkische Bewegungen’ (ethno-nationalist movements) in northern Germany, arguing that this convergence is instructive in terms of how far-right movements are reconfiguring their tactics in a supposedly ‘post-racial’ era. Inspired by the wilderness fantasies of the Wandervogel and Hitler Jugend, the völkisch movements valorise German Nature as an antidote to modern ills, and use naturalistic discourses to articulate a philosophy of race and difference which bears many uncomfortable resemblances with ‘mainstream’ discussions of environment, culture, and diversity. They also have a substantial online presence and embed themselves strategically within broader discourses emanating from the ‘alt-right’, which itself operates a complex system of symbols and significations for referring to race in ways that correspond to the discursive requirements of a ‘post-racial’ public sphere.

This paper uses emerging empirical work in Germany to explore these themes, focusing on how and why particular liberal discourses become co-opted in service of ethno-nationalist ideologies, and how this might be prevented.