The ECPR Standing Group on Extremism & Democracy, the Centre for Research on Extremism (C-REX), and the Centre on Social Movement Studies (COSMOS) are pleased to announce the program of the upcoming Summer School on ‘Concepts and Methods for Research on Far-Right Politics’, which will be held at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence, Italy, from Monday 25 to Friday 29 June 2018.

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Summer School Description

The Summer School focuses on the study of the far right in its populist, radical, and extremist manifestations. Its aim is to bolster and promote knowledge on the theoretical, empirical, and methodological underpinnings of contemporary far-right politics. The School will focus on how to study and interpret the different manifestations of far-right politics across time, arenas, and national contexts. The School will introduce students to concepts and theories explaining the conditions affecting far-right mobilisation and performance; and methods to tackle this phenomenon empirically. Despite the growing attention received by far-right political parties, social movements, and groups, we still lack a comprehensive conceptual and methodological toolkit to investigate its diverse expressions in the multi-organisational field. The School will thus address young scholars and students, and discuss how to apply established research techniques to the study of far-right politics, and create, retrieve, and manage available data. In sum, the School intends to create an interactive learning environment where graduate students will have the opportunity to:

• Learn and familiarise with the conceptual and theoretical foundations of far-right politics, and draw on comparative empirical expertise on far-right mobilisations, electoral performances, and violent manifestations;
• Understand the rationale and practices of a number of methods employed to study far-right politics, at the micro, meso, and macro levels;
• Develop the skills to confidently rely on mixed-method approaches and methodological pluralist practices in their own research projects;
• Present their ongoing research and receive feedback from leading scholars in the field.

Location and Activities
The Summer School will take place in Florence and will last five teaching days, from 25 to 29 June 2018. The Summer School will include two keynote speeches and five teaching days focusing on particular themes related to the overall topic of the Summer School:

Day 1: Monday, 25 June

• Keynote speech (9.30AM-11-30AM, Aula Altana): ‘The Study of the European Far Right: Towards a Fourth Wave?’, Cas Mudde, University of Georgia
• Theory class: Theories and concepts of the far right (Cas Mudde, University of Georgia)
• Methods class: Historical and archival research (Matteo Albanese, University of Lisbon)

Day 2: Tuesday, 26 June

• Theory class: Populist radical right parties in Europe (Andrej Zaslove, Radboud University)
• Methods classes: Mass surveys (Andrej Zaslove, Radboud University); Expert surveys (Andrea L. P. Pirro, Scuola Normale Superiore)

Day 3: Wednesday, 27 June

• Theory class: The far right as a social movement (Pietro Castelli Gattinara, University of Oslo, and Andrea L. P. Pirro, Scuola Normale Superiore)
• Methods classes: Interviewing and life histories (Giorgia Bulli, University of Florence); Protest event analysis (Pietro Castelli Gattinara, University of Oslo)

Day 4: Thursday, 28 June

• Theory class: Far-right violence in Western Europe (Jacob Ravndal, University of Oslo)
• Methods classes: Quantitative data on political violence (Jacob Ravndal, University of Oslo); Ethnographic approach (Kathleen Blee, University of Pittsburgh)

Day 5: Friday, 29 June

• Theory class: Far-right political communication (Caterina Froio, Catholic University of Lille)
• Methods class: Internet and social network analysis (Caterina Froio, Catholic University of Lille)
• Keynote speech (3.30PM-5.30PM, Aula Altana): ‘Gender and the Far Right’, Kathleen Blee, University of Pittsburgh

Organisers:

Pietro Castelli Gattinara (C-REX, University of Oslo)
Andrea L. P. Pirro (COSMOS, Scuola Normale Superiore)