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The Making of Racist Communities

Description

Racism persists as a remarkably adaptable phenomenon, capable of reshaping itself to fit diverse historical and cultural contexts. This research examines how racist collectives emerge, evolve, and sustain themselves, focusing on the theoretical frameworks and ideologies that underpin these formations. The project differentiates between racism as a remnant of past systems and racism as an active project, which constructs new symbolic orders and collectives. Employing a comparative methodological approach, the study combines historical analysis of primary and secondary sources with critical theoretical frameworks from philosophy, psychoanalysis, and social theory to investigate the mechanisms of racist exclusion and community formation.

Through three case studies—Nazi Germany's doctrinal racism, disavowed racism in Slovenia (including its connection to broader European Union-level racialisation processes), and contemporary hybrid collectives that combine online and real-world existence, blending far-right populism with techno-utopianism—the research uncovers the logics of "racist organising." By analysing both historical and contemporary examples, it explores how ideology and institutional mechanisms normalise exclusion and violence, while identifying potential interventions to dismantle these structures.


Project Stages

WP1: Doctrinal Racism – The Case of Nazism
(Coordinator: Troha)

Task 1.1: The Concept of Race in Nazi Theory: Genealogies, Sciences, and Internal Contradictions / months 1–24
Task 1.2: The Racial Gaze: Clauß, Günther, and the Epistemology of Racial Classification / months 1–24
Task 1.3: Volksgemeinschaft: From Racial Community to Legal and Political Order / months 13–36
Task 1.4: Inclusion and Co-optation of Intellectuals under Nazism / months 1–24
Task 1.5: Theresienstadt: Exclusion, Extermination, and the Management of Community / months 1–36

WP2: Disavowed Racism – The Case of Slovenia
(Coordinator: Zevnik)

Task 2.1: Nation-Building and the Foundations of Slovenian National Identity / months 1–12
Task 2.2: Racialisation and Othering in Slovenia’s Founding Documents / months 1–24
Task 2.3: Racism and Racialisation in Slovenian Law, Public Policy, and Media / months 1–36
Task 2.4: Denial and Disavowal of Racism in Slovenian Public Discourse / months 13–36
Task 2.5: Slovenian and European Logics of Racism and Community Formation / months 13–36
Task 2.6: Slovenia, Central-Eastern Europe, and the Disavowed Colonial Past / months 19–36

WP3: Racism as an Auto-Referential Process of Community Formation
(Coordinator: Nedoh)

Task 3.1: Digital Platforms, Right-Wing Populism, and the Formation of Hybrid Collectives / months 1–24
Task 3.2: Neo-Racism, Othering, and the “Revolution of Common Sense” / months 1–36
Task 3.3: Psychoanalysis and the Group Psychology of Hybrid Racist Collectives / months 1–36


Research Project