Examining the extreme right in the local political arena

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Posted on 04 July 2011

XR Local Workshop Dr Elisabeth Carter and Dr Philip Catney (Keele European Parties Research Unit)  hosted a workshop at Keele on the theme of ‘The Extreme Right in the Local Arena’ (23 June, 2011).  Academics and practitioners came together to consider the complex reasons for why parties of the extreme right have broken through at the local electoral level (in Britain and across Western Europe), to discuss why these breakthroughs have often been concentrated in very specific areas, and to examine why these parties have sometimes been able to sustain the gains they have made in these areas, but have sometimes not.

The impetus for the workshop came from the fact that while considerable attention has been devoted to the breakthrough and electoral success of extreme right parties at the national level, the local level has been largely neglected in existing research. The workshop had a scoping role: it sought to explore avenues for future academic research as well as opportunities to engage with policy-makers and the wider community to better understand the dynamics of right-wing extremism in the local context. The event was funded by the HEFCE SEA-Change programme, which aims to help universities develop their capacity for policy impact.

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