Deconstructing the Webs: Entanglements of Nationalist Narratives and Transnational Economies

Today, in political spheres throughout our globalized world, we see a resurgence of openly nationalist, race or ethnically based, or “far-right” extremist language being used to fuel and justify a rising tide of anti-immigration and populist movements. Following the years of claims of a post-race or colorblind era, these movements appear surprising to some. This article considers two realities that reveal the current era as both a continuation of an ongoing process and an inevitable outcome of the transnational economy. This research looks closely at the experience of various groups in their local society, giving voice to the experience of life within the striated societal existence throughout the decades of the popular amnesia aiding the falsely dramatized, post-race or multicultural narrative. Further, the article explores how fascist practices and perceptions have been present in earlier iterations of the anti-other, quietly survived and thrived in eras of cosmopolitan ideologies, and emerge today assertive and unafraid. Importantly, and apart from public perceptions, the economic forces of global capital headed by transnational players create and sustain both the movements and placements of people in physical spaces and in social and political participation, and the narratives which respond to such realities. By illuminating the extent to which local players have participated in identity-based policies within striated spaces, while the causes and conditions of societal development were and are being driven by globalized political and economic factors, this research contributes to the understanding of today’s populist and fascist movements and exposes the fault lines of the transnational capitalist system, without neglecting the deeply embedded language and conceptual understandings of the people who live inside its realms.