Over the past decade, the far-right has become normalised globally. The tolerance and wilful welcoming of these once-shunned ideologies challenge the weakened modern liberal order and signify its limitations as modernity’s symbolic authority. This phenomenon involves an unprecedented ontology in which far-right fantasies of “stolen” ethnocultural wholeness and supremacy propagate through social media governed by anti-democratic, neoliberal imperatives of attention hoarding. Fantasies of self-continuity amidst “permanent crises” – ontological security – are diffused via social media, whose algorithmic governance of our everyday shapes our identities and experience of the political. This problem points to the pressing need to explore the psycho-political and techno-mediatic dimensions of far-right normalisation.

This thesis provides a novel perspective by mobilising Lacanian ontological security to investigate the role of these dimensions in normalising the far-right. First, examining the link between White supremacy and deglobalisation discourses, I find that these pushbacks against liberal democracy become affectively influential in justifying violence against essentialised others. Second, social and traditional media enable the emotional governance of far-right actors, generating feelings of ontological (in)security that position them as legitimate interlocutors. Third, I examine how mainstream right-wing politicians partake in transgressive enjoyment with the far-right against “threatening” others. I find that far-right normalisation is inextricable from the reformation of identities, in which previously held liberal beliefs recede due to the anxiety of becoming politically undesired. Finally, I analyse far-right normalisation as a fantasy of ontological security produced by social media. I find that, in commodifying political antagonisms between liberals and the far-right, these platforms reinforce neoliberalism while gradually eroding the modern liberal order.

Over the past decade, the far-right has become normalised globally. The tolerance of these ideologies challenges the weakened modern liberal order, signifying its limitations as modernity’s symbolic authority. This phenomenon involves an unprecedented ontology in which fantasies of “stolen” ethnocultural wholeness and supremacy propagate through social media governed by neoliberal imperatives of attention hoarding. Fantasies of self-continuity amidst crises – ontological security – are diffused via social media, whose algorithmic governance of our everyday shapes identities and experiences of the political. This problem points to the pressing need to explore the psycho-political and techno-mediatic dimensions of far-right normalisation. This thesis provides a novel perspective by mobilising Lacanian ontological security to investigate the role of these dimensions in normalising the far-right in four levels. It analyses the role of White supremacy and deglobalisation in shaping othering fantasies; traditional and social media’s roles in conveying far-right actors as legitimate interlocutors; the mainstream right-wing’s enjoyment of far-right fantasies; and the algorithmic governance of far-right normalisation as a fantasy reinforcing neoliberalism and eroding liberal democracy.

Under det senaste decenniet har högerextremismen ökat och normaliserats i den så kallade västliga hemisfären och i andra delar av världen. Denna högerförskjutning, tolerans och välkomnande utmanar den försvagade moderna liberala ordningen och visar på dess begränsningar som modernitetens symboliska auktoritet. Detta fenomen innebär en ontologi där högerextrema fantasier om ”stulen” etnokulturell helhet och överlägsenhet sprider sig till offentliga sfärer genom sociala medier som styrs av antidemokratiska, nyliberala krav på vår ständiga uppmärksamhet. Dessa fantasier om självkontinuitet mitt i ”permanenta kriser” - ontologisk säkerhet - sprids via sociala medier, vars algoritmiska styrning av vår vardag formar identiteter och upplevelser av det politiska. Detta pekar på ett akut behov av att utforska de psykopolitiska och teknomediala dimensionerna av högerextrem normalisering. 

Denna avhandling bidrar med ett nytt perspektiv på detta genom att använda Lacaniansk ontologisk säkerhet för att undersöka vilken roll samkonstitueringen av dessa dimensioner har för normaliseringen av extremhögern. Först undersöker jag den historiska kopplingen mellan vit makt och deglobaliseringsdiskurser i normaliseringen av extremhögern, och finner att denna motreaktion mot liberal demokrati blir affektivt inflytelserik i sin förmåga att rättfärdiga våld mot essentialiserade ”andra”. För det andra analyserar jag sociala och traditionella mediers roll och konstaterar att de möjliggör en känslomässig styrning av de högerextrema aktörerna genom att generera känslor av ontologisk (o)säkerhet som positionerar dem som legitima samtalspartner. För det tredje undersöker jag hur vanliga högerpolitiker deltar i gränsöverskridande ”nöjen” tillsammans med högerextrema mot ”hotfulla” andra. Jag finner att högerextrem normalisering hänger ihop med reformeringen av identiteter, där tidigare liberala övertygelser försvinner på grund av oron för att bli politiskt oönskad. Slutligen analyserar jag högerextrem normalisering som en fantasi om ontologisk säkerhet som skapas av sociala medier. Jag finner att dessa plattformar, genom att kommersialisera politiska motsättningar mellan liberala och högerextrema subjekt, förstärker nyliberalismen samtidigt som de gradvis urholkar den moderna liberala ordningen.

The retreat of the modern liberal order in contemporary democracies can be understood as co-constituted with the normalisation of the far right. The far right has increasingly accessed the political ‘mainstream’ through the enabling of erstwhile-disavowing centre-right and right-wing counterparts. In contexts of political ‘victory’, the identity (re)formation of these mainstream right-wing subjects and discourses can be observed and analysed through celebrations alongside the far right and in emotions and attitudes like elation, gloating, and self-righteousness. In this article, I address how victory-related manifestations of enjoyment – or jouissance – are articulated in the discourses of mainstream right-wing subjects. I ask what enjoyment-based rhetoric reveal about the normalisation of the far right and the identity reformation of right-wing subjects and discourses. To address this, I first discuss the role of enjoyment on far-right normalisation by merging Derk Hook’s analytics of enjoyment (2017) with ontological security, expanding on the latter concept as a libidinal fantasy of ideological closure. Subsequently, analysing the case of the 2022 Swedish election, I explore three interrelated dimensions of co-(re)formation of right-wing enjoyment, discourses, and identities: the symbolic space where civilisational-securitising fantasies are produced; the threatening modes of enjoyment of cultural Others; and the imperilled enjoyment modes of the ‘real Swedes’.

Soma design is intimately entangled with the politics, not only of design itself, but of bodies. We combine perspectives from soma design, political theory, and Sara Ahmed’s work The Cultural Politics of Emotions, to develop five political provocations that reflect on the politics of soma design and the possibilities and frictions therein. Inspired by soma design’s roots in somaesthetic philosophy, our five provocations are (i) Knowledge and Ways of Knowing; (ii) The Self and Self-Knowledge; (iii) Felt Ethics and Right Action; (iv) The Pursuit of Happiness; and (v) Justice and the Emotional Labour of Transformation. Our contribution intends to foster reflection on the politics implicit within soma design practice. 

This paper examines the development of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) meta-debate in Sweden before and after the release of ChatGPT. From the perspective of agenda-setting theory, we propose that it is an elite outside of party politics that is leading the debate – i.e. that the politicians are relatively silent when it comes to this rapid development. We also suggest that the debate has become more substantive and risk-oriented in recent years. To investigate this claim, we draw on an original dataset of elite-level documents from the early 2010s to the present, using op-eds published in a number of leading Swedish newspapers. By conducting a qualitative content analysis of these materials, our preliminary findings lend support to the expectation that an academic, rather than a political elite is steering the debate. 

This article is concerned with the psychological dimensions of deglobalization and white supremacy as related to fantasies of "whiteness." The (re)construction of narratives and myths are contested processes, concerning both the struggle for control over historical and cultural space as well as the articulation of particular needs for individuals and groups in the present. We explore the stories and myths created around globalization, (in)security, and the nation. Of importance is how deglobalization and emerging ontological insecurities relate to various fantasy narratives and how these can be understood in psychological terms of dislocation, hybridity, and impermanence in conjunction with a search for security and stability. The implications of these processes on contemporary political identities are of crucial importance as they are able to speak to some of the most contested issues of our times: the threat of extremist and white supremacist groups and discourses to democracy and democratic institutions.

Focusing on the debates on 'due impartiality' provided to far-right leaders in Swedish media, this article uses a Lacanian approach to address the relationship between the practices of normalisation of far-right discourses and fantasies, and the evolution of emotional governance at the interstice of old (i.e. traditional) and new (e.g. social media) media. Emotional governance refers to the everyday emotionally charged utterances and statements made by political leaders. However, this phenomenon can also be read in a larger Foucauldian sense as techniques of surveillance, control and manipulation and as related to narrative representational fantasies. Studies dealing with the normalisation of far-right discourse from a media perspective tend to focus on framing, journalistic norms, market structures and business incentives. We aim to expand these perspectives by opening a discussion on the interplay between the ontological (in)securities attached to the emotional governance of far-right leaders, and the techno-social affordances and roles provided to (and by) 'old' and 'new' actors in the hybrid media ecosystem. We further analyse this interplay by looking at the particular fantasies embedded in it and the consequences of the enactment of 'due impartiality' and equal footing' norms and practices in the Swedish media landscape.