Eco-fascism and political ecologies of the far-right in Germany

该项目通过对德国生态法西斯民族定居点的研究，探索了自然与极右翼之间的关系。生态法西斯主义将对生态问题的强烈关注与种族主义、反犹主义和伊斯兰恐惧症的叙述结合起来。随着生态崩溃和极右翼运动的扩散交织在一起，生态法西斯主义正在全球范围内死灰复燃。最近在克赖斯特彻奇和埃尔帕索发生的恐怖袭击，以生态法西斯主义宣言为理由，使得理解这种对生态和社会不确定性的政治反应变得越来越紧迫。为此，本研究旨在调查自然如何被动员为生态法西斯政治的基础，以及如何防止这种情况发生。最近在德国的volkisch（民族主义者）定居点的增长为生态法西斯主义的实践提供了一个案例研究。在德国东北部和中部越来越普遍，这些定居点构成了一个难得的机会来探索生态法西斯主义是如何在适当的地方表现出来的，而不仅仅是在话语或表现中。以前的新闻记录了这些定居点的有趣特征：他们的异教和万物有灵论崇拜习俗，父权制的社会结构，有机饮食，以及对20世纪20年代民族环境保护团体的模仿。地理方法可以超越这种有限的（虽然有价值的）对定居点特征的索引，来解释某些空间和景观如何容易受到民族主义、生态法西斯主义的解释。这里选择的文献很好地解释了这种种族、社会和自然的意识形态，以及伴随而来的在不确定时期撤退到土地上的呼吁，是如何通过空间表达出来的。为了解决这些问题，我收录了几个地理文献。第一部分，“极右翼的政治生态”，关注的是极右翼运动如何想象、组织和对自然采取行动。这将使我关注德国极右翼在过去和现在对自然的不同想象。第二，“后基础政治理论”，认为社会生活没有最终的基础（例如社会契约或神圣权威），并探索了社会的“偶然基础”不断重建的方式。我用这些文献来探索自然的概念是如何作为volkisch定居点社会结构的基础。我的第三部作品《超越人类的地理学》探讨了非人类参与者（植物、动物、景观）在共同产生人类活动中的作用。考虑到自然观念在民族主义宇宙中的突出地位（从万物有灵论和异教灵性到对德国景观作为民族能量来源的崇敬），超越人类的理论将是一个有用的工具，可以揭示自然对民族主义政治的影响，塑造和基础。因此，该项目将采用几种研究方法，其中第一种是档案分析。我将利用柏林联邦档案馆有关历史环境运动的藏品，分析德国流浪社（Wanderwogel）等民间环保团体的学术研究和宣传。这将有助于将自然作为民族政治基础的作用历史化。在这个过程中，我也会收集民间团体发表的当代材料，从极右翼的环境杂志，如Umwelt&Aktiv，到网上论坛，如volkisch Paganism。我对这些材料的话语分析将集中在自然的想象如何吸引人们进入某种政治立场，并激发现实世界的行动。最后，我将对与volkisch定居点有关的人进行步行采访（但严格避免任何积极参与社区的人），重点关注他们与不同景观的关系，以及他们将自然和政治融合在一起的策略。

This project explores the relationship between nature and the far-right through a study of the eco-fascist volkisch settlements in Germany. Eco-fascism combines an intense care for ecological issues with narratives of racism, antisemitism, and Islamophobia. Eco-fascism is seeing a global resurgence, as ecological breakdown(s) and proliferating far-right movements intersect. Recent terrorist attacks in Christchurch and El Paso, justified by eco-fascist manifestos, make understanding this political response to ecological and societal uncertainty increasingly urgent. To this end, this research aims to investigate how nature is mobilised as a basis for eco-fascist politics, and how this can be prevented. The recent growth of volkisch (ethno-nationalist) settlements in Germany offers a case study of eco-fascism in practice. Increasingly common in north-east and central Germany, these settlements constitute a rare opportunity to explore how eco-fascism is manifested in place, rather than simply in discourses or representations. Previous journalism has documented interesting features of these settlements: their pagan and animist worship practices, patriarchal social structures, organic diets, and emulation of 1920s volkisch -environmentalist groups. A geographical approach can move beyond this limited (though valuable) indexing of the settlements' characteristics to explain how certain spaces and landscapes become susceptible to volkisch, eco-fascist interpretations. The literatures selected here are well placed to explain how this ideology of race, society and nature, and accompanying calls to retreat to the land in uncertain times, are articulated through space. To address these issues, I enrol several bodies of geographical literature. The first, 'Political ecologies of the far-right', is concerned with how far-right movements imagine, organise around, and act upon nature. This will inform my focus on the different imaginations of nature by the German far-right in the past and present. The second, 'Post-foundational political theory', maintains that there is no ultimate basis for social life (e.g. a social contract or divine authority), and explores the ways in which 'contingent foundations' for society are continuously re-made. I use this literature to explore how ideas of nature are invoked to serve as foundations for the social structures of the volkisch settlements. My third body of literature, 'More-than-human geographies', explores the role of non-human actors (plants, animals, landscapes) in co-producing human activity. Given the prominence of ideas of nature in the volkisch universe (from animist and pagan spirituality to a reverence for the German landscape as a source of ethnic energies), more-than-human theory will be a useful tool for unpacking the influence of nature in animating, shaping, and grounding volkisch politics.The project will therefore implement several research methods, the first of which is archival analysis. Using collections on historical environmental movements at the Bundesarchiv Berlin, I will analyse scholarship and propaganda produced by volkisch-environmentalist groups such as the Wanderwogel in Germany. This will assist in historicising the role of nature as a foundation for volkisch politics. In the process, I will also collect contemporary materials published by volkisch groups, ranging from far-right environmental magazines such as Umwelt&Aktiv, to online forums such as volkisch Paganism. My discourse analysis of these materials will focus on how imaginaries of nature attract people to certain political positions, and inspire real-world action. Finally, I will conduct walking interviews with people associated with the volkisch settlements (but strictly avoiding anyone actively involved in the communities), focusing on how they relate to different landscapes, and the strategies they use to fuse nature and politics together.