Going Nativist. How to Interview the Radical Right?

Abstract

Interviewing different social groups comes with specific challenges. This article focuses on the question of how to interview people who vote or work for the radical right. Over the past decades, radical right-wing movements and parties have become important political forces. Their rise has led to a proliferation of academic publications that have sought to shed light on this renewed swing to the right. In this ever-growing field of research, studies employing qualitative interviews have proven to be of invaluable importance. To date, however, there is no comprehensive, practical guidebook on how to interview the radical right. This article seeks to redress this gap. Drawing on existing studies and personal insights acquired over the course of our own PhD research, during which we interviewed over one hundred radical right respondents ranging from voters and grassroots activists to party elites, this article provides a comprehensive guide for in-depth, interview-based research on the radical right. Specifically, the article discusses a range of practical considerations, including how to find respondents, how to gain access, how to prepare for the interview and how to build rapport during the interview. The insights are useful to early career researchers who rely on qualitative methods when collecting data, as well as scholars from different fields, including political science, public administration and sociology, who are interested in understanding the perspectives and lived realities of the radical right.

The Excluded Ordinary? A Theory of Populist Radical Right Voters’ Position in Society – Preprint

“…I conducted a thematic analysis of 27 semi-structured interviews with German PRR voters to illustrate the argument. While research on radical right support generally needs more qualitative evidence to explain individual motivations and reasoning (Damhuis & de Jonge, 2022), it is particularly useful to introduce an established theory to a new field. In this case, it allowed me to show how optimal distinctiveness can help understand majority members' inclusion experiences.…”

“…I use qualitative data from 27 semi-structured interviews with PRR voters in Germany to analyze how they experience their position in society. Qualitative interviews are seldomly used in this subfield but are essential for studying diverse and complex individual experiences, which can guide theory-building for later quantitative tests (Damhuis & de Jonge, 2022;e.g., Gest, 2016;Hochschild, 2016). Thus, the present study can neither test the optimal distinctiveness argument nor can it claim that the relationship between potential exclusion experiences and PRR support is causal.…”

The excluded ordinary? A theory of populist radical right supporters’ position in society

“…The German context is suitable to illustrate this theory, inasmuch as its radical right party exploits supporters’ perceptions as ordinary people (e.g., Mohr, 2021) and claims that men, whites, and traditional people are neglected (e.g., Hebel, 2018; Kamann, 2018; Schüle, 2020). Qualitative interviews are rarely used in this subfield but are essential for studying diverse and complex individual experiences, which can guide theory‐building for later quantitative tests (Damhuis & de Jonge, 2022; e.g., Gest, 2016; Hochschild, 2016).…”

“…Qualitative interviews are rarely used in this subfield but are essential for studying diverse and complex individual experiences, which can guide theory-building for later quantitative tests (Damhuis & de Jonge, 2022; e.g., Gest, 2016;Hochschild, 2016).…”

“…Observing the combination of belonging and uniqueness experiences can indicate why PRR supporters may feel excluded from society even if their backgrounds often are rooted in objective or self-perceived majority groups. The qualitative design can provide an in-depth description of belonging and uniqueness experiences among this sample, which is appropriate as a first illustration of this theory in the political context.6 Semi-structured interviews are a suitable method to explore individuals' subjective experiences(Damhuis & de Jonge, 2022;Morgan Brett & Wheeler, 2022), in this case, radical right supporters' perceived position in society. Rather than quantitatively measuring peoples' degrees of belonging and uniqueness, qualitative responses show, for example, what an identity means to an individual, in which contexts it becomes relevant, and how different identities relate to each other.…”