Living right : far-right youth movements in contemporary Europe / Agnieszka Pasieka.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Living Right offers an in-depth examination of far-right youth movements in Poland, Italy, and Hungary. The protagonists include students and young entrepreneurs, former skinheads, construction workers, bohemian musicians, and rich kids from the upper class who have all found a nurturing community in far-right groups. While they focus on local action, they are also part of a broader project with global ramifications. Agnieszka Pasieka engages in intensive fieldwork in these communities, particularly among members of the far-right Polish movement "National Radical Camp" (ONR), the Italian neofascist movement Lealtà Azione ("Loyalty Action, " or LA) and the FedeRazione ("Federation"), which comprises over a dozen movements across Italy, along with additional fieldwork among young Hungarian fascists. Pasieka makes some startling and counterintuitive discoveries. She observes that these groups embrace forms of civic engagement we tend to associate with left-wing organizations and movements, such as volunteerism in soup kitchens, animal shelters, and orphanages; environmental activism; and "humanitarian" missions to such places as the Balkans and the Middle East. Moreover she finds that such groups adopt language that overlaps in significant ways with left-leaning progressivism, notably a critique of globalization, consumerism, capitalism, mass culture, and "Americanization," as well as a selective embrace of the welfare state-so long as the benefits of public assistance are limited to white Christian compatriots. Members of these youth groups are often enthusiastic-but selective-readers of modern social science, and embrace notions of "cultural autonomy," "cultural rights," and "diversity." This language though buttresses an understanding of the world as made up of demarcated ethno-cultural entities, in which each entity should not mix with others. Taken together, her findings lead her to consider the far right's rejection of a hegemonic liberal order"--

"A sobering look at the seductive power of fascist ideas for the young Radical nationalism is on the rise in Europe and throughout the world. Living Right provides an in-depth account of the ideas and practices that are driving the varied forms of far-right activism by young people from all walks of life, revealing how these social movements offer the promise of comradery, purpose, and a moral calling to self-sacrifice, and demonstrating how far-right ideas are understood and lived in ways that speak to a variety of experiences.In this eye-opening book, Agnieszka Pasieka draws on her own sometimes harrowing fieldwork among Italian, Polish, and Hungarian militant youths, painting unforgettable portraits of students, laborers, entrepreneurs, musicians, and activists from well-off middle class backgrounds who have all found a nurturing home in the far right. Providing an in-depth account of radical nationalist communities and networks that are taking root across Europe, she shows how the simultaneous orientation of these groups toward the local and the transnational is a key to their success. With a focus on far-right morality that challenges commonly held ideas about the right, Pasieka describes how far-right movements afford opportunities to the young to be active members of tightly bonded comradeships while sharing in a broader project with global ramifications.Required reading for anthropologists and anyone concerned about the resurgence of far-right militancy today, Living Right sheds necessary light on the forces that have made the growing appeal of fascist idealism for young people one of the most alarming trends of our time"--