Annual Report HAIT

Liebe als Schlüsselemotion der extremen Rechten?

Ökologie, affektive Politik und die Anastasia Umweltsiedler-Bewegung in Deutschland

Manuela Beyer

Manès Weisskircher

Keywords: Extremism Research, Extremism and Populism Research, Anastasia

---

Abstract

Research usually links the rise of the far right to a variety of negative emotions, especially fear and anger. This article analyses the case of the far-right ecological settler movement community Anastasia which, in the context of environmental activism, discursively centres on the positive emotion of love. Our key theoretical contribution is to highlight the importance of love for far-right mobilization while disentangling different functions of love discourse. We add an original perspective to debates on the role of emotions, far-right mobilization and environmentalism by highlighting the relevance of (a) the explicit rejection of negative emotions, (b) the creation of ‘spaces of love’ in rural areas and (c) love as a discursive tool of legitimization. Methodologically, we rely on an analysis of primary text sources such as novels and Anastasia publications as well as on semi-structured interviews. Our findings are important for understanding the growing phenomenon of "authoritarian sustainability". Moreover, they also shed new light on the emotional underpinnings of the contemporary wave of far-right mobilization in party and protest politics more generally.

---

Author Biographies

Manuela Beyer

• since September 2023 Postdoctoral researcher in the BMBF junior research group REXKLIMA
• 2023 Doctorate from Freie Universität Berlin (dissertation title: “Emotionen im Wandel - Gesellschaft im Wandel. 60 Jahre Emotionsdiskurse in der BRAVO.”)
• 2023 Research assistant at the Chair of Economic and Organizational Sociology at the Institute of Sociology at MLU Halle
• 2017–2023 Research assistant for qualitative methods at the Institute of Sociology at Technischen Universität Chemnitz
• 2015–2017 Research assistant for Sociology at Hochschule Rhein-Waal, Department of “Gender and Diversity“
• 2010–2013 Research assistant at the Exzellenzcluster “Languages of Emotion” at Freie Universität Berlin
• 2010 Magistra Artium Sociology, Psychology, and Journalism at Universität Leipzig
• 2007 Master of European Political Sociology at Dalarna University, Sweden

Manès Weisskircher

• since 2023 head of the BMBF junior research group REXKLIMA, Institute of Political Science, TU Dresden
• 2021–2022 Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo
• 2019 PhD (Political and Social Sciences), European University Institute
• 2014 Master of Research (Political and Social Sciences), European University Institute
• 2013 Master of Science (Economic History), London School of Economics and Political Science
• 2012 Magister (International Developement), University of Vienna
• 2012 Magister (Political Science), University of Vienna