Mainstreaming the Far Right

Over recent years, we have seen far-right politics thrive in diverse contexts. The mainstreaming of exclusion and inequality has consequently gathered pace. While explanations for this rise often centre around the actions of the far right itself, this open access book shifts the focus to the crucial role played by mainstream actors. Providing much-needed clarity on the relationship between the mainstream and far right, and offering a conceptual framework for mainstreaming, Katy Brown delves deeper into the way that mainstream political discourse normalises far-right ideas.Through a case study of the Brexit referendum campaign, Brown illustrates how mainstream actors may outwardly distance themselves from the far right, yet shared discourses between them undermine this claim. By examining areas of overlap, including colonial nostalgia/amnesia, racism and populism, this work emphasises the need to centralise the role of the mainstream in normalising far-right discourse: putting the mainstream in mainstreaming.The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a e.g. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on Bloomsbury Collections. Open access was funded by the UKRI.