The cult of the victim: an analysis of the collective identity of the English Defence League
2014; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 48; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/0031322x.2014.950454
ISSN1461-7331
Autores Tópico(s)Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East
ResumoABSTRACTSince its creation in 2009 the English Defence League has become the largest street-based social movement in contemporary Britain. Its demonstrations have led to violence and community tensions in town and city centres throughout the country. While these street demonstrations have attracted some attention in academia, as of yet there has been no attempt to analyse the statements of the EDL as an organization. Oaten analyses the EDL's outgoing communicative transmissions and argues that the EDL as a movement is based on a sense of collective victimhood. By drawing on conceptions of collective victimhood from post-conflict studies, he suggests that only by understanding the EDL's collective victimhood can we understand its anti-Muslim and anti-establishment stance. His article stresses that collective victimhood is a zero sum identity, and highlights the fact that, as such, the EDL and its members continuously seek to portray themselves as the 'true' victims of abuse by government and British Muslims. Oaten concludes, in light of EDL leader Tommy Robinson's departure, by looking at the potential future trajectories of the EDL. He argues that, despite the fact that Robinson was central to the movement's collective victimhood frame of reference, the EDL continues to utilize the collective victimhood narrative in order to explain Robinson's departure. This suggests that collective victimhood had become a powerful category of self-identification for the movement, and that the movement can continue without Robinson.KEYWORDS: collective victimhooddiscourse analysisEnglish Defence Leaguefar rightpopulismsocial movement The author wishes to thank Peter Kerr, Emma Foster and Cherry Miller from the University of Birmingham for reading and commenting on earlier drafts of this article. The author also wishes to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and feedback.The author wishes to thank Peter Kerr, Emma Foster and Cherry Miller from the University of Birmingham for reading and commenting on earlier drafts of this article. The author also wishes to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and feedback.Notes1 Chris Allen, 'Opposing Islamification or promoting Islamophobia? Understanding the English Defence League', Patterns of Prejudice, vol. 45, no. 4, 2011, 279–94.2 Jamie Bartlett and Mark Littler, Inside the EDL: Populist Politics in a Digital Age (London: Demos 2011).3 James Treadwell and Jon Garland, 'Masculinity, marginalization and violence: a case study of the English Defence League', British Journal of Criminology, vol. 51, no. 4, 2011, 621–34.4 Joel Busher, 'Grassroots activism in the English Defence League: discourse and public (dis)order', in Max Taylor, P. M. Currie and Donald Holbrook (eds), Extreme Right-Wing Political Violence and Terrorism (London and New York: Bloomsbury 2013), 65–84.5 Alberto Melucci, Challenging Codes: Collective Action in the Information Age (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1996), 77.6 Treadwell and Garland, 'Masculinity, marginalization and violence'; see also Busher, 'Grassroots activism in the English Defence League'.7 Bartlett and Littler, Inside the EDL.8 Nigel Copsey, The English Defence League: Challenging Our Country and Our Values of Social Inclusion, Fairness and Equality (London: Faith Matters 2010).9 Bartlett and Littler, Inside the EDL, 14; Paul Jackson, The EDL: Britain's 'New Far Right' Social Movement (Northampton: RNM Publications, University of Northampton 2011), 13–30.10 H. S. Lane, A Study of the English Defence League (London: Faith Matters 2012), 7.11 Treadwell and Garland, 'Masculinity, marginalization and violence', 632.12 Treadwell and Garland, 'Masculinity, marginalization and violence', 630.13 Jackson, The EDL, 16.14 Jackson, The EDL, 14.15 Treadwell and Garland, 'Masculinity, marginalization and violence', 630.16 Treadwell and Garland, 'Masculinity, marginalization and violence', 631.17 Treadwell and Garland, 'Masculinity, marginalization and violence', 630.18 Treadwell and Garland, 'Masculinity, marginalization and violence', 622.19 Jon Garland and James Treadwell, 'The new politics of hate? An assessment of the appeal of the English Defence League amongst disadvantaged white working class communities in England', Journal of Hate Studies, vol. 10, no. 1, 2012, 123–41.20 Bartlett and Littler, Inside the EDL, 5.21 Busher, 'Grassroots activism in the English Defence League', 72.22 Busher, 'Grassroots activism in the English Defence League', 71.23 Busher, 'Grassroots activism in the English Defence League', 72.24 Copsey, The English Defence League, 11.25 Francesca Polletta and James M. Jasper, 'Collective identity and social movements', Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 27, 2001, 283–305 (286).26 Jacquelien van Stekelenburg and Bert Klandermans, 'Individuals in movements: a social psychology of contention', in Bert Klandermans and Conny Roggeband (eds), Handbook of Social Movements across Disciplines (New York: Springer 2007), 157–204 (181).27 Melucci, Challenging Codes, 84.28 Greg Martin, 'Conceptualising cultural politics in subcultural and social movement studies', Social Movement Studies: Journal of Social, Cultural and Political Protest, vol. 1, no. 1, 2002, 73–88 (74).29 Daniel Bar-Tal, Lily Chernyak-Hai, Noa Schori and Ayelet Gundar, 'A sense of self-percieved collective victimhood in intractable conflicts', International Review of the Red Cross, vol. 91, no. 874, 2009, 229–58 (231).30 Jan van Dijk, 'Free the victim: a critique of the western conception of victimhood', International Review of Victimology, vol. 16, no. 1, 2009, 1–33 (2).31 Luc Huyse, 'Victims', in David Bloomfield, Teresa Barnes and Luc Huyse, Reconciliation after Violent Conflict: A Handbook (Stockholm: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance 2003), 54–66 (63).32 Diane Enns, 'Identity and victimhood: questions for conflict management practice', Berghof Occasional Paper, no. 28, May 2007, 3.33 Neil Ferguson, Mark Burgess and Ian Hollywood, 'Who are the victims? Victimhood experiences in postagreement Northern Ireland', Political Psychology, vol. 31, no. 6, 2010, 857–86 (875).34 Neil Ferguson, Mark Burgess and Ian Hollywood, 'Who are the victims? Victimhood experiences in postagreement Northern Ireland', Political Psychology, vol. 31, no. 6, 2010, 878.35 Masi Noor, Nurit Shnabel, Samer Halabi and Arie Nadler, 'When suffering begets suffering: the psychology of competitive victimhood between adversarial groups in violent conflicts', Personality and Social Psychology Review, vol. 16, no. 4, 2012, 351–74 (351).36 Masi Noor, Nurit Shnabel, Samer Halabi and Arie Nadler, 'When suffering begets suffering: the psychology of competitive victimhood between adversarial groups in violent conflicts', Personality and Social Psychology Review, vol. 16, no. 4, 2012, 354.37 Billy Blake, EDL: Coming Down the Road (Birmingham: VHC Publishing 2011), 2.38 Billy Blake, EDL: Coming Down the Road (Birmingham: VHC Publishing 2011), 2.39 Julie Bindel, 'Beyond the pleasure beach', Guardian, 30 May 2008.40 Blake, EDL, 126.41 Authors research field notes, taken at an EDL demonstration in Newcastle, 25 May 2013; for a full transcript of Tommy English's speech, see 'LGBT Division speech—EDL demo, Newcastle 2013', 25 May 2013, available on the LGBT Division's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/notes/edl-lgbt-division/lgbt-division-speech-edl-demo-newcastle-2013/590488360973435 (viewed 18 July 2014).42 'How the people of Britain are being lied to', 25 June 2013, available on the EDL website at www.englishdefenceleague.org/how-the-people-of-britain-are-being-lied-to (viewed 18 July 2014).43 Allen, 'Opposing Islamification or promoting Islamophobia?', 294.44 Blake, EDL, 158.45 Blake, EDL, 159.46 Blake, EDL, 159.47 Veronika Burcar and Malin Åkerström, 'Negotiating a victim identity: young men as victims of violence', Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, vol. 10, no. 1, 2009, 37–54 (51).48 'We are all Tommy Robinson: the Wandsworth demo', 26 November 2012, available on the EDL website at www.englishdefenceleague.org/we-are-all-tommy-robinson-the-wandsworth-demo (viewed 21 July 2014).49 'We are all Tommy Robinson: the Wandsworth demo', 26 November 2012, available on the EDL website at www.englishdefenceleague.org/we-are-all-tommy-robinson-the-wandsworth-demo (viewed 21 July 2014).50 Bar-Tal, Chernyak-Hai, Schori and Gundar, 'A sense of self-perceived collective victimhood in intractable conflicts', 234.51 'Woolwich walk—10 lapses of liberty', 1 July 2013, available on the EDL website at www.englishdefenceleague.org/woolwich-walk-10-lapses-of-liberty (viewed 21 July 2014).52 'Woolwich walk—10 lapses of liberty', 1 July 2013, available on the EDL website at www.englishdefenceleague.org/woolwich-walk-10-lapses-of-liberty (viewed 21 July 2014).53 'OSCE discusses sharia enforcement in UK', 17 July 2013, available on the EDL website at www.englishdefenceleague.org/osce-discusses-sharia-enforcement-in-uk/ (viewed 21 July 2014).54 'Mission statement', available on the EDL website at www.englishdefenceleague.org/mission-statement (viewed 21 July 2014).55 'Islam is to blame', 30 May 2013, available on the EDL website at http://www.englishdefenceleague.org/islam-is-to-blame (viewed 21 July 2014).56 Jacob Torfing, New Theories of Discourse: Laclau, Mouffe and Zizek (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell 1999), 124.57 'Islam is to blame'.58 Noor, Shnabel, Halabi and Nadler, 'When suffering begets suffering', 354.59 'EDL condemn Luton mosque attack', 3 April 2012, available on the EDL website at www.englishdefenceleague.org/edl-condemn-luton-mosque-attack (viewed 21 July 2014).60 Maajid Nawaz quoted in Andrew Neather, 'The odd couple: has an ex-Islamist turned former EDL leader Tommy Robinson?', Evening Standard, 10 October 2013.61 'Man arrested after Chelmsford EDL protest', BBC News, 22 July 2012, available at www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-18944057 (viewed 21 July 2014).62 Author's field notes taken at EDL demonstration in Cambridge, 23 February 2013.63 Full video of Tommy Robinson resignation statement can be accessed with Dominic Gover, 'Tommy Robinson: "English Defence League now part of the problem"', International Business Times (online), 8 October 2013, available at /www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/512325/20131008/tommy-robinson-edl-english-defence-league-quit.htm (viewed 21 July 2014).64 Full video of Tommy Robinson resignation statement can be accessed with Dominic Gover, 'Tommy Robinson: "English Defence League now part of the problem"', International Business Times (online), 8 October 2013, available at /www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/512325/20131008/tommy-robinson-edl-english-defence-league-quit.htm (viewed 21 July 2014).65 'Tommy and Kevin resign from the EDL', 8 October 2013, available on the EDL website at www.englishdefenceleague.org/tommy-and-kevin-resign-from-the-edl (viewed 21 July 2014).Additional informationNotes on contributorsAlexander OatenAlexander Oaten is a doctoral researcher and teaching associate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Birmingham. His work is concerned with the qualitative research of far-right political parties and protest movements, and poststructural theory and discourse analysis. Email: afo760@bham.ac.uk
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