Скачать или смотреть 03 A New Fascism? – Wilhelm Heitmeyer

Symposium: A New Fascism?
Franco “Bifo” Berardi, Wilhelm Heitmeyer, Chantal Mouffe, G. M. Tamás
17 December 2016, Fridericianum

Wilhelm Heitmeyer – Group-Focused Enmity, Social Disintegration and Right-Wing Populism in a Process of Escalation

A spectre is haunting Europe and the United States - the spectre of right-wing populism. In our longitudinal research project “Group-Focused Enmity” (2002– 2011) and drawing on annual representative surveys it became evident that discriminatory attitudes towards minorities such as migrants, asylum seekers, Muslims, homosexual people and homeless people preceded the recent rise of right- wing parties (AfD) and movements. To account for this phenomenon our research has emphasised the role of anxieties over social disintegration that are widespread among certain parts of the population. Support for right-wing movements and parties thus appears to be, if not a solution, at least a means of addressing their anxieties. There is, however, a real risk of setting in motion an escalation process because, when combined with the collective efforts of right-wing populist movements, the attitudes of individuals can end up legitimising the use of violence by right-wing extremist groups.

Wilhelm Heitmeyer is a sociologist and member of the International Panel on Social Progress. He works as Senior Research Professor at the Institute of Interdisciplinary Research on Conflicts and Violence at the University of Bielefeld, an institution he founded in 1996. He is an eminent specialist of right-wing extremism, terrorism, cultural violence, and social disintegration. Heitmeyer has been the editor of the series "German Conditions" published by Suhrkamp (2002–2011). He is the co-author with Otto Backes and Rainer Dollase of "The Crisis of the Cities. Consequences of Disintegrative Urban Development for Ethnic-cultural Coherence" (1998), with Helmut Schröder and Joachim Müller of "Compelling Fundamentalism" (1997). He also authored "Right-Wing Extremist Orientations among Youth" (1987).