New Books in Political Science

Agnieszka Pasieka, "Living Right: Far-Right Youth Activists in Contemporary Europe" (Princeton UP, 2024)

Apr 19, 2025

Agnieszka Pasieka, an assistant professor at the University of Montreal and author of "Living Right," delves into the rise of far-right youth activism in Europe. She shares her fieldwork experiences with young activists from various backgrounds, revealing how they find camaraderie and purpose in radical nationalism. Topics include evolving gender roles within these movements, the importance of transnational ties, and the complexities of morality and community. Her insights provoke a deeper understanding of contemporary extremist ideologies and their impact on society.

46:29

Episode guests

Agnieszka Pasieka

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Quick takeaways

Agnieszka Pasieka's fieldwork reveals that far-right youth activism thrives on a blend of local identities and transnational collaborations, creating a complex sense of belonging.

The involvement of women in far-right movements reflects a strategic dichotomy where conservative gender roles coexist with female empowerment in activism.

Deep dives

Understanding Radical Activism

Agnieszka Pacheca's exploration of far-right activists reveals a deep interest in understanding collective mobilization around issues of inequality and discrimination. The journey began with her research on minority groups in Poland, which inspired her to delve into the motivations behind far-right activism. This connection between historical and contemporary activism highlights the ways in which different nationalist groups collaborate and share strategies, reflecting a transnational network that transcends borders. This comparative approach emphasizes the importance of examining how past patterns of cooperation inform current movements in the context of evolving socio-political landscapes.

Intro

2min

Exploring Far-Right Youth Activism

11min

Transnational Ties of Far-Right Activism

7min

Morality and Community in Far-Right Youth Activism

11min

Redefining Gender Roles in Far-Right Activism

3min

Bridging Ideologies: The Need for Understanding the Far Right

11min

Radical nationalism is on the rise in Europe and throughout the world. Living Right: Far-Right Youth Activists in Contemporary Europe (Princeton University Press, 2024) provides an in-depth account of the ideas and practices that are driving the varied forms of far-right activism by young people from all walks of life, revealing how these social movements offer the promise of comradery, purpose, and a moral calling to self-sacrifice, and demonstrating how far-right ideas are understood and lived in ways that speak to a variety of experiences.

In this eye-opening book, Agnieszka Pasieka draws on her own sometimes harrowing fieldwork among Italian, Polish, and Hungarian militant youths, painting unforgettable portraits of students, laborers, entrepreneurs, musicians, and activists from well-off middle class backgrounds who have all found a nurturing home in the far right. Providing an in-depth account of radical nationalist communities and networks that are taking root across Europe, she shows how the simultaneous orientation of these groups toward the local and the transnational is a key to their success. With a focus on far-right morality that challenges commonly held ideas about the right, Pasieka describes how far-right movements afford opportunities to the young to be active members of tightly bonded comradeships while sharing in a broader project with global ramifications.

Required reading for anthropologists and anyone concerned about the resurgence of far-right militancy today, Living Right sheds necessary light on the forces that have made the growing appeal of fascist idealism for young people one of the most alarming trends of our time.

Agnieszka Pasieka is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Montreal.

* This episode is part of a special collaboration between the New Books Network and the Society for the Anthropology of Europe, a section of the American Anthropological Association. Together, we’re highlighting exciting new work in Europeanist anthropology—featuring authors from across the field, including winners of the William A. Douglass Book Prize and contributors to the European Anthropology in Translation series published by Berghahn Books.

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