From Brexit to Trump: Anthropology and the rise of nationalist populism

Gusterson, Hugh

doi:10.1111/amet.12469

Cited by 177 publications

(124 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Some political science scholars have interpreted Trump as the latest incarnation of a long tradition of American populism, a tradition that could have historically risen from the negative consequences of neoliberalism (e.g., Brewer, ; Hallin, ; Kazin, ; Zakaria, ). Indeed, the rising of populism in different areas of the world (e.g., the “Brexit” case, or the current Italian and many Eastern European governments) can be considered a product of neoliberalism (e.g., Gusterson, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitudes towards Trump Policies and Climate Change: The Key Roles of Aversion to Wealth Redistribution and Political Interest

Panno

Carrus

Leone

2019

Journal of Social Issues

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Both psychological and political science researchers have pointed out that Trump policies embrace right wing and authoritarian dispositions. In turn, such dispositions have been related to climate change denial and aversion to wealth redistribution. Nevertheless, little is known about the mechanisms underlying the relationship between individuals' favorable attitude towards Trump and climate change skepticism. We aimed to understand two cruxes in this relationship: (i) whether the favorable attitude towards Trump influences climate change skepticism through the aversion to wealth redistribution and (ii) whether people's interest in politics interacts in the relationships between attitude towards Trump and two social outcomes-climate change denial and aversion to wealth redistribution. We considered a representative sample of the US electorate (ANES 2016 database, N = 4271), assessing attitudes towards Trump by aggregating several indicators concerning respondents' evaluations of Trump. Interest in politics, aversion to wealth redistribution, and climate change skepticism had also been assessed. Results showed that favorable attitudes towards Trump related to climate change denial through the aversion to wealth redistribution. Moreover, the link between such attitudes and both climate change skepticism and aversion to wealth redistribution was stronger for people showing a greater interest in politics.Although there is a consensus with regard to the risks of climate change in the scientific community (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2014), dismissal of the reality of climate change and skepticism over its alleged

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitudes towards Trump Policies and Climate Change: The Key Roles of Aversion to Wealth Redistribution and Political Interest

Panno

Carrus

Leone

2019

Journal of Social Issues

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“…American vegans may experience racial isolation, but most do come from relatively privileged backgrounds, and, most importantly, they are usually well educated. Gusterson [43] identifies education as a key source of political disparity, with those lacking higher education more likely to be alienated in an increasingly service-oriented economy. Education is also linked with greater support for liberal values.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trump Veganism: A Political Survey of American Vegans in the Era of Identity Politics

Wrenn

2017

Societies

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Often stereotyped as being apathetic to the human suffering, the American vegan movement has historically failed to build alliances with other social justice movements. As intersectional feminism gains a foothold in the movement and external political crises challenge the movement's frame of reference, the role that identity plays in movement progress has become a serious concern. Using the 2016 election as a flashpoint, this article considers if the identity backlash characterized by the Trump campaign finds parallels in the American vegan movement. A survey of 287 American vegans finds limited evidence of Trump veganism, defined here as a single-issue focus on speciesism that rejects the relevance of human-experienced systems of oppression. However, respondents do find that movement diversity efforts are insufficient, especially when controlling for race and gender. Most respondents were ethically-motivated vegans, liberal voters, and intersectionally-oriented activists who reported multiple engagements with various leftist movements. Only four percent of respondents voted Trump, while 14% agreed with or were neutral about Trump's campaign promise to put "America first". Those who were vegan for reasons of self-interest and had been vegan for less than a year were significantly more likely to support Trump's conservative agenda and were slightly less likely to participate in other social movements.

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“…Trump voters were not only, or even primarily, from the working class. As Gusterson argues, the perception that they were derives from the fact that the ‘mainstream media in the United States have put disproportionate weight on a single narrative thread: the role of free trade and factory closings in alienating a postindustrial white working class’ (: 210). Even if, as he accepts, there is some evidence of a white working‐class swing in the Rust Belt states, focusing on this aspect alone he suggests, ‘distorts and oversimplifies, even inverts, the larger story’ (2017: 210).…”

Section: Brexit Trump and The Paucity Of Class Explanationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brexit, Trump, and ‘methodological whiteness’: on the misrecognition of race and class

Bhambra

2017

British Journal of Sociology

299

219

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The rhetoric of both the Brexit and Trump campaigns was grounded in conceptions of the past as the basis for political claims in the present. Both established the past as constituted by nations that were represented as 'white' into which racialized others had insinuated themselves and gained disproportionate advantage. Hence, the resonant claim that was broadcast primarily to white audiences in each place 'to take our country back'. The politics of both campaigns was also echoed in those social scientific analyses that sought to focus on the 'legitimate' claims of the 'left behind' or those who had come to see themselves as 'strangers in their own land'. The skewing of white majority political action as the action of a more narrowly defined white working class served to legitimize analyses that might otherwise have been regarded as racist. In effect, I argue that a pervasive 'methodological whiteness' has distorted social scientific accounts of both Brexit and Trump's election victory and that this needs to be taken account of in our discussion of both phenomena.

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From Brexit to Trump: Anthropology and the rise of nationalist populism

Cited by 177 publications

References 25 publications

Attitudes towards Trump Policies and Climate Change: The Key Roles of Aversion to Wealth Redistribution and Political Interest

Attitudes towards Trump Policies and Climate Change: The Key Roles of Aversion to Wealth Redistribution and Political Interest

Trump Veganism: A Political Survey of American Vegans in the Era of Identity Politics

Brexit, Trump, and ‘methodological whiteness’: on the misrecognition of race and class

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