Rafal Soborski | Richmond American University London (original) (raw)

Papers by Rafal Soborski

Working Paper Series, Toronto Metropolitan Centre for Immigration and Settlement (TMCIS) and the CERC in Migration and Integration at Toronto Metropolitan University, 2024

This paper explores an understudied phenomenon of migrants joining far-right groups in countries ... more This paper explores an understudied phenomenon of migrants joining far-right groups in countries of residence and the resulting transnationalization of far-right politics. Our case study focuses on
Polish far-right activists in Britain and their ways of reconciling their transnational living and political engagements with nativist, often biologized, notions of the soil and roots of the imagined community. We adopt an anthropological framework on discursive and performative strategies used to navigate this contradiction. We discuss an ideological shift that consists in emphasis being placed increasingly on the transnational dimension of civilizational or cultural affinity, bringing
whiteness to the fore. We also explore mythopoeic narratives and ritualized performances which help activists establish an organic connection with symbolically significant locations in the country
of residence as well as claim a special place in its ethnic and social hierarchy. We pay special attention to the symbolic embodiments of elements that have always been at the core of far-right ideological thought: the national soil, the dead ancestors, and the heroic past.

Politics, Religion & Ideology

Global Perspectives

It is widely accepted that the COVID-19 pandemic was a transformative event of major historical s... more It is widely accepted that the COVID-19 pandemic was a transformative event of major historical significance, but the ideational and ideological dimensions of it have been studied less extensively than its more tangible implications in terms of economic or human cost. This paper engages with ideological discourses revolving around the pandemic by relating interpretations of the pandemic-induced crisis to the discourse of endism, which includes such well-established themes as the end of ideology or the end of history. We explore debates around the concept of populism, which is at the core of the endist discourse today, and argue that it serves as a smoke screen that distracts from fundamental problems at the heart of global capitalism and its supporting ideology of neoliberalism. We argue that the transformations ushered in by the pandemic and the political response to it must be understood within the context of ongoing developments in the neoliberal project. The paper sheds some lig...

Acta academica, Dec 13, 2021

Taking ideology seriously in the time of plague: insights versus distractions This article argues... more Taking ideology seriously in the time of plague: insights versus distractions This article argues that insights from ideology theory shed valuable light on the political aspects of COVID-19 and help understand and categorise policy responses to it. Much of the debate on the politics of COVID-19 has been dominated by questions concerning populism, but this article contends that this is not a fruitful direction for understanding current developments. The argument advanced here is that populism is a hollow and incoherent ideological category and so does not provide a suitable departure point to explore the ideological dimension of the pandemic. On the other hand, a critical engagement with the dominant ideology of neoliberalism goes a long way to explain different kinds of political fallout from COVID-19. While neoliberalism is unfit for the challenge posed by the virus, identifying the ideological underpinnings of the neoliberal approach may help to grasp its implications and formulate urgently needed alternatives.

The aim of this chapter is to compare principles of Green ideology with the standpoint represente... more The aim of this chapter is to compare principles of Green ideology with the standpoint represented by what is usually known as anti-globalization or anti-globalism. Whereas Green ideology has been present in the political arena since at least the 1960s, with its ...

This thesis engages with the ideological implications of the concept of globalization. Working wi... more This thesis engages with the ideological implications of the concept of globalization. Working with a neutral, inclusive definition of ideology, it takes ideologies to be constellations of mutually defining political concepts. The analysis centres on the question of whether longstanding ideological currents have been capable of absorbing the idea of globalization in ways that do not undermine their integrity or whether, as some scholars have argued, they have been disrupted by the force of a new entrant to the extent that they no longer make sense. On the basis of conceptual analysis applied in five chapters to six ideologies or ideological families: classical liberalism, socialism (in three variants), national populism and fascism (as two members of the so-called 'extreme right'), and anarchism and ecologism (comparatively), I conclude that no such ideological rapture has occurred. While conceptual shifts are to a greater or lesser extent identifiable in each of the cases analyzed, the changes have occurred within existing ideological configurations and according to their logical or functional requirements. The idea of globalization has not destabilized any of those conventional clusters sufficiently to render them incoherent. On the contrary, they remain meaningful as distinct sets of political beliefs and as such play an important part in the debate on globalization.

Perspectives on Global Development and Technology, Jan 18, 2019

Prefiguration is at the heart of today’s anti-neoliberal activism while also having a long histor... more Prefiguration is at the heart of today’s anti-neoliberal activism while also having a long history in progressive politics. Prefigurative movements aim to unite their means with their aims; in other words, the process is to be harmonized with the objective. The appeal of prefiguration is related to a widespread perception that corruption and hypocrisy are all-pervasive in mainstream political space. However, the current practice of prefigurative activism has some important flaws. The problems are particularly acutely evident in large-scale mobilizations bringing together diverse ideological positions and activists with typically highly individualistic personalities. This article provides a critique of prefigurative politics by highlighting the limitations it has imposed on the recently dominant forms of anti-neoliberal resistance.

global-e, Aug 9, 2019

...evading explicit ideological work does not mean that ideas cease to make the world go round; i... more ...evading explicit ideological work does not mean that ideas cease to make the world go round; it only means that the ideas of others prevail...

Journal of Political Ideologies, Oct 1, 2012

ABSTRACT with globalization and ideology. The first strand considers the question of whether poli... more ABSTRACT with globalization and ideology. The first strand considers the question of whether political ideology of any stripe may provide adequate guidance for effective managing or confronting of globalization or some aspects of it. The second strand accepts the import of ideology in the generic sense but questions the relevance of established ideological currents in the context of globalization. While appreciating the insights provided by both literatures, this article suggests that each has been limited by their prevalent assumptions regarding the nature of ideology on the one hand, and the extent of the impact of globalization on the other. The article identifies several logical and political setbacks resulting from these assumptions and argues for a closer conceptual analysis of ideological discourse as a way out of the flawed terms of the current debate.

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2013

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2013

In this chapter I continue my survey of anti-globalist discourses by providing a comparative anal... more In this chapter I continue my survey of anti-globalist discourses by providing a comparative analysis of some representative anarchist and ecologist critiques of globalization. The comparison reveals some deep-seated differences between the two sets of ideological premises from which the respective critiques are advanced and highlights their distinctive implications. The chapter demonstrates that anti-globalism is a thin category that is only able to acquire a fuller and more specific meaning within broader ideological formations in which its particular instances are to be found.

International Critical Thought, Apr 2, 2020

This article maps the development of the debate on globalization and ideology since "end of histo... more This article maps the development of the debate on globalization and ideology since "end of history" moment in the 1990s, through the 2008 financial crash, until the current ascendance of the populist right. The first part introduces the concept of ideology and engages with the "end of ideology" thesis advanced by exponents of neoliberalism and often echoed by their challengers on the left. The second part highlights some of the adverse implications of this disdain for ideology in anti-neoliberal movements and their substitutive fixation with prefigurative politics. Finally, the third part considers the ongoing populist wave. My argument is that populist claims are articulated as components of established ideologies and need to be challenged in light of their hosts' core beliefs. This dovetails with my critique of the tendency of some scholars to dismiss widely recognizable ideological categories and instead proliferate new-fangled isms illsuited to provide orientation on the ideological terrain. The article concludes by taking a glimpse into the possible futures of ideology and the prospects for a revival of progressive politics. It posits that the left needs to reconnect with its rich intellectual history and thereby reclaim its once unsurpassed ability to project compelling ideological visions.

The Global Studies Journal, 2015

The ongoing economic crisis has variously influenced the relative strength and bearing of the maj... more The ongoing economic crisis has variously influenced the relative strength and bearing of the major systems of political beliefs and it is not yet fully clear in what shape they will come out of the turmoil. However, at first glance, relevant ideological debates have so far continued to unfold along familiar trajectories. Thus, the neoliberal diagnosis of the economic debacle and the corresponding response to it appear to mirror the claims that were repeatedly made by enthusiasts of free market capitalism in the past. Likewise, the discursive reactions to the crisis by rivals of neoliberalism do not seem entirely new. This article sheds a tentative light on the crystallizing ideological interpretations of the crisis and the extent to which the emerging schemes of coping with it are determined by conventional parameters of the established systems of political beliefs.

Palgrave Macmillan eBooks, Aug 19, 2013

The international journal of interdisciplinary social sciences, 2007

The current capitalist form of globalization is challenged from various directions, both from the... more The current capitalist form of globalization is challenged from various directions, both from the left and from the right, and for a range of motives, both progressive and conservative, democratic as well as authoritarian. This widespread rejection of capitalist globalization ...

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2013

This book now sets out to examine the meanings of globalization that can be identified within con... more This book now sets out to examine the meanings of globalization that can be identified within conceptual arrangements of major ideological families. The analysis takes off by advancing an argument according to which the currently hegemonic discourse of globalization can be unpacked as integral to a long-established logic of classical liberalism. Defining and delineating the dominant ideology What is emerging victorious, in other words, is not so much liberal practice, as the liberal idea. That is to say, for a very large part of the world, there is now no ideology with pretensions to universality that is in a position to challenge liberal democracy. (Fukuyama 1992: 45, emphasis in original) We are all liberals now.

Parallel but opposed to the globalist visions of liberalism and Marxism, the rejection of the glo... more Parallel but opposed to the globalist visions of liberalism and Marxism, the rejection of the global has a long history. This chapter examines anti-globalization positions articulated on the right end of the political spectrum. It traces the development of these ideas from the long tradition of European anti-universalism while also identifying new conceptual and rhetorical shifts espoused by parties, movements and intellectuals representing national populist and fascist thought.

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2013

The dominant view in the debate concerning the impact of the concept of globalization on the patt... more The dominant view in the debate concerning the impact of the concept of globalization on the patterns of established political ideologies is that traditional ideological structures have been thoroughly disrupted by the emerging conceptual framework of what could be termed ‘the global imaginary’. From this perspective, it is no longer useful to think in conventional ideological terms - which were coined for the bygone era of cultural homogeneity, uniform national consciousness and class-based political divisions - and in their place a new vocabulary is needed to make sense of a radically different political reality. Analysis of selected representative variants of interpretations of globalization has led me to oppose this claim and accordingly the argument in this book is that established political ideologies are still meaningful categories with which to map the political world. In making the case for the relevance of conventional ideological structures, this book has demonstrated the endurance of their traditional interpretations today and, at the same time, traced in their erstwhile expressions concerns that anticipate those nowadays herded together under the conceptual umbrella of ‘globalization’. But while my discussion has been emphatic of continuity, it should not have left an impression of ideology as a static construct. Indeed, I have identified within major ideologies important conceptual shifts that have resulted from the rise of the idea of globalization. Yet, the argument that I have made posits that so far those changes have been internal to conventional belief systems and that the latter have therefore proved capable of rearticulating their tenets in light of the new circumstances.

Working Paper Series, Toronto Metropolitan Centre for Immigration and Settlement (TMCIS) and the CERC in Migration and Integration at Toronto Metropolitan University, 2024

This paper explores an understudied phenomenon of migrants joining far-right groups in countries ... more This paper explores an understudied phenomenon of migrants joining far-right groups in countries of residence and the resulting transnationalization of far-right politics. Our case study focuses on
Polish far-right activists in Britain and their ways of reconciling their transnational living and political engagements with nativist, often biologized, notions of the soil and roots of the imagined community. We adopt an anthropological framework on discursive and performative strategies used to navigate this contradiction. We discuss an ideological shift that consists in emphasis being placed increasingly on the transnational dimension of civilizational or cultural affinity, bringing
whiteness to the fore. We also explore mythopoeic narratives and ritualized performances which help activists establish an organic connection with symbolically significant locations in the country
of residence as well as claim a special place in its ethnic and social hierarchy. We pay special attention to the symbolic embodiments of elements that have always been at the core of far-right ideological thought: the national soil, the dead ancestors, and the heroic past.

Politics, Religion & Ideology

Global Perspectives

It is widely accepted that the COVID-19 pandemic was a transformative event of major historical s... more It is widely accepted that the COVID-19 pandemic was a transformative event of major historical significance, but the ideational and ideological dimensions of it have been studied less extensively than its more tangible implications in terms of economic or human cost. This paper engages with ideological discourses revolving around the pandemic by relating interpretations of the pandemic-induced crisis to the discourse of endism, which includes such well-established themes as the end of ideology or the end of history. We explore debates around the concept of populism, which is at the core of the endist discourse today, and argue that it serves as a smoke screen that distracts from fundamental problems at the heart of global capitalism and its supporting ideology of neoliberalism. We argue that the transformations ushered in by the pandemic and the political response to it must be understood within the context of ongoing developments in the neoliberal project. The paper sheds some lig...

Acta academica, Dec 13, 2021

Taking ideology seriously in the time of plague: insights versus distractions This article argues... more Taking ideology seriously in the time of plague: insights versus distractions This article argues that insights from ideology theory shed valuable light on the political aspects of COVID-19 and help understand and categorise policy responses to it. Much of the debate on the politics of COVID-19 has been dominated by questions concerning populism, but this article contends that this is not a fruitful direction for understanding current developments. The argument advanced here is that populism is a hollow and incoherent ideological category and so does not provide a suitable departure point to explore the ideological dimension of the pandemic. On the other hand, a critical engagement with the dominant ideology of neoliberalism goes a long way to explain different kinds of political fallout from COVID-19. While neoliberalism is unfit for the challenge posed by the virus, identifying the ideological underpinnings of the neoliberal approach may help to grasp its implications and formulate urgently needed alternatives.

The aim of this chapter is to compare principles of Green ideology with the standpoint represente... more The aim of this chapter is to compare principles of Green ideology with the standpoint represented by what is usually known as anti-globalization or anti-globalism. Whereas Green ideology has been present in the political arena since at least the 1960s, with its ...

This thesis engages with the ideological implications of the concept of globalization. Working wi... more This thesis engages with the ideological implications of the concept of globalization. Working with a neutral, inclusive definition of ideology, it takes ideologies to be constellations of mutually defining political concepts. The analysis centres on the question of whether longstanding ideological currents have been capable of absorbing the idea of globalization in ways that do not undermine their integrity or whether, as some scholars have argued, they have been disrupted by the force of a new entrant to the extent that they no longer make sense. On the basis of conceptual analysis applied in five chapters to six ideologies or ideological families: classical liberalism, socialism (in three variants), national populism and fascism (as two members of the so-called 'extreme right'), and anarchism and ecologism (comparatively), I conclude that no such ideological rapture has occurred. While conceptual shifts are to a greater or lesser extent identifiable in each of the cases analyzed, the changes have occurred within existing ideological configurations and according to their logical or functional requirements. The idea of globalization has not destabilized any of those conventional clusters sufficiently to render them incoherent. On the contrary, they remain meaningful as distinct sets of political beliefs and as such play an important part in the debate on globalization.

Perspectives on Global Development and Technology, Jan 18, 2019

Prefiguration is at the heart of today’s anti-neoliberal activism while also having a long histor... more Prefiguration is at the heart of today’s anti-neoliberal activism while also having a long history in progressive politics. Prefigurative movements aim to unite their means with their aims; in other words, the process is to be harmonized with the objective. The appeal of prefiguration is related to a widespread perception that corruption and hypocrisy are all-pervasive in mainstream political space. However, the current practice of prefigurative activism has some important flaws. The problems are particularly acutely evident in large-scale mobilizations bringing together diverse ideological positions and activists with typically highly individualistic personalities. This article provides a critique of prefigurative politics by highlighting the limitations it has imposed on the recently dominant forms of anti-neoliberal resistance.

global-e, Aug 9, 2019

...evading explicit ideological work does not mean that ideas cease to make the world go round; i... more ...evading explicit ideological work does not mean that ideas cease to make the world go round; it only means that the ideas of others prevail...

Journal of Political Ideologies, Oct 1, 2012

ABSTRACT with globalization and ideology. The first strand considers the question of whether poli... more ABSTRACT with globalization and ideology. The first strand considers the question of whether political ideology of any stripe may provide adequate guidance for effective managing or confronting of globalization or some aspects of it. The second strand accepts the import of ideology in the generic sense but questions the relevance of established ideological currents in the context of globalization. While appreciating the insights provided by both literatures, this article suggests that each has been limited by their prevalent assumptions regarding the nature of ideology on the one hand, and the extent of the impact of globalization on the other. The article identifies several logical and political setbacks resulting from these assumptions and argues for a closer conceptual analysis of ideological discourse as a way out of the flawed terms of the current debate.

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2013

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2013

In this chapter I continue my survey of anti-globalist discourses by providing a comparative anal... more In this chapter I continue my survey of anti-globalist discourses by providing a comparative analysis of some representative anarchist and ecologist critiques of globalization. The comparison reveals some deep-seated differences between the two sets of ideological premises from which the respective critiques are advanced and highlights their distinctive implications. The chapter demonstrates that anti-globalism is a thin category that is only able to acquire a fuller and more specific meaning within broader ideological formations in which its particular instances are to be found.

International Critical Thought, Apr 2, 2020

This article maps the development of the debate on globalization and ideology since "end of histo... more This article maps the development of the debate on globalization and ideology since "end of history" moment in the 1990s, through the 2008 financial crash, until the current ascendance of the populist right. The first part introduces the concept of ideology and engages with the "end of ideology" thesis advanced by exponents of neoliberalism and often echoed by their challengers on the left. The second part highlights some of the adverse implications of this disdain for ideology in anti-neoliberal movements and their substitutive fixation with prefigurative politics. Finally, the third part considers the ongoing populist wave. My argument is that populist claims are articulated as components of established ideologies and need to be challenged in light of their hosts' core beliefs. This dovetails with my critique of the tendency of some scholars to dismiss widely recognizable ideological categories and instead proliferate new-fangled isms illsuited to provide orientation on the ideological terrain. The article concludes by taking a glimpse into the possible futures of ideology and the prospects for a revival of progressive politics. It posits that the left needs to reconnect with its rich intellectual history and thereby reclaim its once unsurpassed ability to project compelling ideological visions.

The Global Studies Journal, 2015

The ongoing economic crisis has variously influenced the relative strength and bearing of the maj... more The ongoing economic crisis has variously influenced the relative strength and bearing of the major systems of political beliefs and it is not yet fully clear in what shape they will come out of the turmoil. However, at first glance, relevant ideological debates have so far continued to unfold along familiar trajectories. Thus, the neoliberal diagnosis of the economic debacle and the corresponding response to it appear to mirror the claims that were repeatedly made by enthusiasts of free market capitalism in the past. Likewise, the discursive reactions to the crisis by rivals of neoliberalism do not seem entirely new. This article sheds a tentative light on the crystallizing ideological interpretations of the crisis and the extent to which the emerging schemes of coping with it are determined by conventional parameters of the established systems of political beliefs.

Palgrave Macmillan eBooks, Aug 19, 2013

The international journal of interdisciplinary social sciences, 2007

The current capitalist form of globalization is challenged from various directions, both from the... more The current capitalist form of globalization is challenged from various directions, both from the left and from the right, and for a range of motives, both progressive and conservative, democratic as well as authoritarian. This widespread rejection of capitalist globalization ...

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2013

This book now sets out to examine the meanings of globalization that can be identified within con... more This book now sets out to examine the meanings of globalization that can be identified within conceptual arrangements of major ideological families. The analysis takes off by advancing an argument according to which the currently hegemonic discourse of globalization can be unpacked as integral to a long-established logic of classical liberalism. Defining and delineating the dominant ideology What is emerging victorious, in other words, is not so much liberal practice, as the liberal idea. That is to say, for a very large part of the world, there is now no ideology with pretensions to universality that is in a position to challenge liberal democracy. (Fukuyama 1992: 45, emphasis in original) We are all liberals now.

Parallel but opposed to the globalist visions of liberalism and Marxism, the rejection of the glo... more Parallel but opposed to the globalist visions of liberalism and Marxism, the rejection of the global has a long history. This chapter examines anti-globalization positions articulated on the right end of the political spectrum. It traces the development of these ideas from the long tradition of European anti-universalism while also identifying new conceptual and rhetorical shifts espoused by parties, movements and intellectuals representing national populist and fascist thought.

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2013

The dominant view in the debate concerning the impact of the concept of globalization on the patt... more The dominant view in the debate concerning the impact of the concept of globalization on the patterns of established political ideologies is that traditional ideological structures have been thoroughly disrupted by the emerging conceptual framework of what could be termed ‘the global imaginary’. From this perspective, it is no longer useful to think in conventional ideological terms - which were coined for the bygone era of cultural homogeneity, uniform national consciousness and class-based political divisions - and in their place a new vocabulary is needed to make sense of a radically different political reality. Analysis of selected representative variants of interpretations of globalization has led me to oppose this claim and accordingly the argument in this book is that established political ideologies are still meaningful categories with which to map the political world. In making the case for the relevance of conventional ideological structures, this book has demonstrated the endurance of their traditional interpretations today and, at the same time, traced in their erstwhile expressions concerns that anticipate those nowadays herded together under the conceptual umbrella of ‘globalization’. But while my discussion has been emphatic of continuity, it should not have left an impression of ideology as a static construct. Indeed, I have identified within major ideologies important conceptual shifts that have resulted from the rise of the idea of globalization. Yet, the argument that I have made posits that so far those changes have been internal to conventional belief systems and that the latter have therefore proved capable of rearticulating their tenets in light of the new circumstances.

The last decades have witnessed a steady increase in popular discontent with prevailing neolibera... more The last decades have witnessed a steady increase in popular discontent with prevailing neoliberal approaches to economy, policy and society. And yet, neoliberalism remains dominant, even in the context of the ongoing financial crisis, while its opponents seem disorientated. Typical explanations of this current contradictory situation highlight the fact that anti-neoliberal movements are unwilling to commit to a policy program, enact effective political tactics or challenge state institutions. Ideology and the Future of Progressive Social Movements argues that a
more deep-seated issue lies at the heart of these problems. The dismissal of ideology has hindered the politics of resistance and it has now become clear that a firm ideological vision is what activists urgently require to defy neoliberal domination.

Ideology has been pronounced dead on several occasions in the past. The most recent verdict to th... more Ideology has been pronounced dead on several occasions in the past. The most recent verdict to this effect has been made in the context of the globalization debate. It proclaims the decline of 'ideological' politics in the fragmented societies of today and especially the irrelevance of established ideological systems and their failure to provide answers to the dilemmas of an increasingly global world.

This popular view is challenged here. On the basis of conceptual and historical analysis applied to a range of major ideological traditions this book argues that no such ideological rupture has in fact occurred. While conceptual shifts are identifiable, changes have occurred within existing ideological configurations and according to their pre-existing logical requirements. Globalization has not destabilized conventional ideologies to an extent that would render them incoherent. On the contrary, they remain meaningful as distinct sets of political beliefs and as such shape the globalization debate.