Participation On and Beyond the Boundaries: Brazilian Youth Activism in Radical Right Movements

What is it about?

Analysing Brazilian youth activism in radical right movements The increase of radical right-wing activism is widely seen as a threat to democracy due to its linkages to racism, sexism, and justification of violence. However, there is increasing evidence of the heterogeneity of young people attracted to or engaged in such movements. The Ph.D. Candidate Beatriz Besen, from the University of São Paulo and Prof. Dr. Andreas Walther, from the University Goethe of Frankfurt, investigate the youth activism inside radical right movements based on biographical interviews collected in a comparative study between Brazil and Germany. In contrast to studies that consider left-wing participation ‘mobilisation’ but see right-wing activism as deviant, they analyse activism in radical right movements as a case of ‘liminal’ youth participation that is not fully recognised as participation. Although data show an increasing legitimation of violence in expanding radical-right discourses in the public sphere, the biographical perspective allows them to analyse youth activism also as an experience of politicisation and an expression of participation. While the researchers do not deny that forms of liminal participation can represent a backlash to liberal scripts, the data highlight they can also be seen as a product of limitations of liberal orders, revealing the antagonism that characterises (increasing) unequal societies.

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