In recent years, the right has become a powerful force in many parts of the world. This review focuses primarily on the United States, with comparisons to rightist movements elsewhere. Our focus is movements, not political parties or intellectual trends. The article begins with terms and definitions and distinguishes conservative from right-wing movements. We then review changing theoretical orientations and the major findings on ideologies and characteristics of these movements. We also survey contextual factors that influence rightist mobilization and strategies used by rightist movements. We pay particular attention to New Right and New Christian Right conservative movements and to right-wing skinhead and white supremacist movements. A final section examines methodological and ethical concerns that arise in studies of the right. The conclusion recommends directions for future research.
Sociologists Darcy Leach and Sebastian Haunss coined the term “social movement scene” to refer to people “who share a common identity and a common set of subcultural or countercultural beliefs, values, norms” and the network of physical places they frequent. Leach and Haunss explain the numerous ways in which scenes can benefit social movements (e.g. as pools of mobilization or as places for cultural experimentation) and that scenes are places where resistance happens. I propose that thinking of a scene as a process is more useful than thinking of it as a stable context where political activity happens. Scenes are the products of urban protests, such as squatting; rituals, such as protest and music; and the activities of everyday life. Drawing on research from sociologists, geographers, historians, and cultural studies scholars, I discuss social movement scenes on both the political left and right in terms of their spatial, symbolic, and relational dimensions.
Purpose
A social movement scene is “a network of people who share a set of subcultural or countercultural beliefs, values, norms, and convictions as well as a network of physical spaces where members of that group are known to congregate” (Leach and Haunss 2009, p. 260, emphasis in the original). The purpose of this paper is to further develop theories of social movement scenes by examining the spatial dimensions of proximity, centrality, visibility, and accessibility, arguing that different scene configurations are shaped by gentrification processes.
Design/methodology/approach
This is an ethnographic study based on research conducted in Sweden over a five year period (2007-2012), including several summer research trips and a sustained fieldwork period of 14 months. Using snowball sampling, the author conducted semi-structured interviews with 38 activists involved in autonomous movement scenes. The author interviewed both men (n=26) and women (n=12) who ranged in age from 18 to 37, with most interviewees in their late 20s and early 30s.
Findings
Findings suggest that neighborhoods in the early stages of gentrification are most conducive to strong scenes. The author’s findings suggest that, while some of these conditions are locally specific, there were common structural conditions in each city, such as changes in the commercial landscape and housing tenure.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the specificity of the concept of a social movement scene by presenting three spatial dimensions of scenes: centrality (relative to the Central Business District), concentration (clustering of scene places in one area of the city), and visibility (a visible presence communicated by signs and symbols). A second contribution of this paper is to offer a set of hypotheses about the urban conditions under which social movement scenes thrive (or fizzle).
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.