In this new episode of the “When the Far Right and the Far Left Converge” series, which shares fresh research from a workshop organized by the CEU DI Democracy in History Work Group, we discuss with Dr Ashton Kingdon and Dr Balša Lubarda how both the far right and the far left mobilize ecological ideas, often drawing from the same language of resistance.
Based on their paper “Co-optation without Ownership: The Idea of Resistance in Multimodal Radical Right and Left Ecological Argumentation,” the conversation explores how environmentalism becomes a battleground of competing ideologies, revealing surprising overlaps in how radical movements frame their struggle against perceived systems of oppression. The episode also examines how the use of similar imagery by different groups can become dangerous in democracies, leading to confusion or disorientation among citizens and making it harder to interpret images and slogans outside their original context.
Ashton Kingdon is a Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Southampton. She is also an Advisory Board Member at the Accelerationism Research Consortium, a research fellow at VOX-Pol, a core member of the Extremism and Gaming Research Network (EGRN), a member of the steering committee for the British Society of Criminology’s Hate Crime Network and former head of Technology and Research Ethics at the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right. Ashton Kingdon’s research is interdisciplinary, her recent book The World White Web explores the ways in which technology and imagery accelerate radicalization.
Balša Lubarda is an MSCA postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins University – University Pompeu Fabra Public Policy Center. He is the author of Far-Right Ecologism: Environmental Politics and the Far Right in Hungary and Poland (Routledge, 2024) and co-editor of the forthcoming volume Global Far-Right Ecologies: Trends, Issues and Challenges. His research explores the intersections of ecology, ideology, and radical politics, with publications in leading journals such as Nature Climate Change, Environmental Politics and Journal of Political Ideologies. Previously, he has held teaching and research positions across Europe and the United States, including at the University of California, Berkeley and Central European University.
The interview was conducted by Alexandra Kardos. Lilit Hakobyan edited the audio file.
