Research Group REXKLIMA
The research group REXKLIMA (Far-right politics versus climate action? Nationalist opposition in a transnational political field) is led by Dr. Manès Weisskircher. REXKLIMA is a research group for early career researchers funded for five years (2023-2027) by Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Apart from the head of the research group, it comprises a post-doc position, three doctoral positions, and a guest researcher program.
The rise of far-right political parties and the salience of global warming are two of the most relevant contemporary political phenomena. However, in the social sciences they are mostly treated separately. REXKLIMA combines both issues. In Europe, far-right parties often deny the transnational problem of anthropogenic climate change and increasingly mobilize against global warming policies. The burgeoning literature on far-right 'climate skepticism' emphasizes the need for research on the precise stances of far-right parties on concrete climate and energy policy measures, their mobilization strategies in this policy area, and the effects of their 'anti-environmental' activism. The research group will contribute to fill these research gaps. The guiding research question is: How and why do far-right parties mobilize on the issue of climate change? The sub-project 'Far-right ecology: ideology and framing' is based at the Institute of Political Science. The sub-project 'Far-right ecology: mobilization and effects' is based at the Hannah Arendt Institute for Research on Totalitarianism. In addition, the members of REXKLIMA also contribute to other essential questions in research on far-right politics, especially in the fields of party political and social movement studies.
Publications during the funding period:
Defending democracy against the ‘Corona dictatorship’? Far-right PEGIDA during the COVID-19 pandemic (2023, Social Movement Studies), by Sabine Volk and Manès Weisskircher.
Far-Right PEGIDA. Non-violent Protest and the Blurred Lines Between the Radical and Extreme Right (2023, Routledge Handbook of Non-Violent Extremism), by Sabine Volk und Manès Weisskircher.
Groundwork:
Global warming and polarization. Wind turbines and the electoral success of the greens and the populist radical right (2022, European Journal of Political Research), by Cyrill Otteni and Manès Weisskircher.
AfD gegen die Grünen? Rechtspopulismus und klimapolitische Polarisierung in Deutschland (2022, Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen), by Cyrill Otteni and Manès Weisskircher.
What is the relationship between the far right and environmentalism? (2022, C-REX Compendium), by Iris Beau Segers and Manès Weisskircher.
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