Exploring the conceptual contours of retrogressive technocultural worldings

The present intervention synthesizes the conceptual and empirical efforts of examining the dialectical dynamics engaging on the one hand, the emancipatory political programs of feminist and LGBTI+ initiatives and, on the other, the retrogressive mobilizations of far-right and anti-gender movements (Liinason & Norocel, 2024). More specifically, it aims to frame in and provide conceptual consistency to the opportunities for coalescing networks of belonging within a reactionary cis-hetero-normative worldview (Blum, 2019), which are provided by digital media (be them social platforms, digital forums catering to narrowly defined communities, digital content creators, digital outlets of legacy media as well as counterpublic media, or gaming platforms). As such, it explores from a theoretical point of view the manner in which the generativity and interconnectivity of present-day media ecologies facilitate the collective sense-making and network building of counter-hegemonic worldings (Otsuki et al. 2019; Trend, 2013), which underpin retrogressive mobilization (Norocel & Baluta, 2023; Norocel & Pettersson, 2023). Consequently, it aims to make a conceptual contribution to the expanding literature on the complex imbrications of power, representation, and intersectionality, by focusing on the digital construction of subjectivities, which are afforded a superordinate position within the matrix of domination (Collins, 2000).

Ov Cristian NOROCEL (pronouns: he/him) is Associate Professor (docent) and Senior Lecturer (lektor) in Gender Studies, at Lund University (Sweden). He is Doctor of Social Science (VTT) in Political Science from the University of Helsinki (Finland). Norocel applies an intersectional lens to issues of far-right political communication and anti-gender mobilization. He examines these phenomena in a comparative perspective in the Global North, both in Northern Europe (Finland; Sweden), as well as in Eastern Europe (Hungary; Romania). Norocel has served as guest editor for several special issue projects, for example: on radical right populism, gender and religion in Identities: Global Studies of Culture and Power (with Alberta GIORGI) (2022); on new theoretical viewpoints on immigrant integration, embracing multidirectional conceptual flows in Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies (with Dalia ABDELHADY) (2023); and on critically assessing theoretical and empirical studies of anti-gender politics in the Eastern European context in Problems of Post-Communism (with David PATERNOTTE) (2023).