The Aesthetic Politics of Far-right Environmentalism - Hardcover

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Imogen Richards is Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Deakin University, Australia.

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“The far-right’s use of artistic and cultural forms to promote its political agendas is nothing new, and neither is its appropriation of environmental issues. But its exploitation of ecological crises has become more pronounced as the adverse effects of global climate change have intensified.  In this insightful book, Imogen Richards explores how far-right actors employ aesthetic and visual strategies to disseminate their extreme (read: racist) ideologies. The Aesthetic Politics of Far-right Environmentalism is vital reading for anyone interested in understanding what is going on in the world today.”

 —Avi Brisman, author of Direct Action as Conceptual Art?: An Examination of the Role of the Communiqué for Ecodefense

"With the far right growing and mutating, Imogen Richards’ incisive deconstruction of its aesthetic strategies deserves the widest possible circulation."

—Jeff Sparrow, Senior Lecturer, Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne, Australia

This book offers a groundbreaking exploration of the complex relationships between aesthetics, politics, and environmental concerns within far-right movements. Drawing on critical theory and insights from Walter Benjamin, Jacques Rancière, and others, it examines how both institutional far-right political parties and extra-institutional extremist actors manipulate environmental narratives to advance their distinct political agendas.

 Its unique approach features a comparative analysis of far-right individuals and organisations, investigating how they use imagetic media to promote ethnonationalist and authoritarian responses to environmental degradation, including the adverse effects of climate change. Spanning recent historical and contemporary contexts, the book provides a nuanced account of how eco-fascist and other far-right political ecologies are embedded within broader far-right ideologies.

It critically analyses various dimensions of this alignment, including the romanticisation of nature as national identity, the instrumentalisation of ecological crises to justify authoritarian, anti-immigration, and other forms of social control, and the use of conservation rhetoric as a façade for nativist policies. It offers a broad overview of how images and other visual media are used for propaganda. This book will be of interest to policymakers, scholar-activists, and practitioners.

Imogen Richards is Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Deakin University, Australia.