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‘One Big Family’: Emotion, Affect and Solidarity in Young People’s Activism in Radical Right and Patriotic Movements

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Understanding Youth Participation Across Europe

Abstract

This chapter brings new insight to the study of young people’s activism in extreme right groups by considering their activism from a social movement theory perspective. It draws on the meta-ethnographic synthesis of findings of a cluster of ethnographic studies of radical right and patriotic movements conducted for the MYPLACE project, focusing on the emotional and affective dimensions of activism and on three case studies: the English Defence League (UK), Russian Run (Russia) and Torcida (Croatia). It considers the emotional pleasure derived from activism often expressed as going ‘wild’, feeling euphoric, or being overtaken by a physical ‘buzz’, as well as the reciprocal emotions that bind activists through feelings of solidarity and mutual support, expressed as feeling part of ‘one big family’.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Sciences (Sociology), University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Hilary Pilkington

  2. Centre for Youth Studies, National Research University Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Elena Omelchenko

  3. Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia

    Benjamin Perasović

Authors
  1. Hilary Pilkington
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  2. Elena Omelchenko
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  3. Benjamin Perasović
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hilary Pilkington .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

    Hilary Pilkington

  2. Department of Sociology, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United Kingdom

    Gary Pollock

  3. Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia

    Renata Franc

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© 2018 The Author(s)

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Pilkington, H., Omelchenko, E., Perasović, B. (2018). ‘One Big Family’: Emotion, Affect and Solidarity in Young People’s Activism in Radical Right and Patriotic Movements. In: Pilkington, H., Pollock, G., Franc, R. (eds) Understanding Youth Participation Across Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59007-7_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59007-7_6

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-59006-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-59007-7

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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