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The transnational co-production of interwar ‘fascism’: on the dynamics of ideational mobility and localisation

Kallis

The transnational co-production of interwar ‘fascism’: on the dynamics of ideational mobility and localisation Thumbnail


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Abstract

Interwar fascism achieved sensational international reach through the appeal and circulation of a set of generic ideological norms and political practices. Therefore models of interpretations must accommodate alternative local interpretations, adaptations, and a wide range of varied outcomes in the process of its diverse local translations. In this article, I propose the new trans-discplinary mobility paradigm as a productive methodological extension of the transnational approach in fascism studies. I focus on the fluid dynamics of trans-national circulation of ‘fascist’ ideas and political innovations, as well as on how these were perceived, (re-)interpreted, adopted/adapted by a wide set of local agents in interwar Europe. I employ a decentred, anti-literarist, and multi-directional mobility approach that analyses the history of interwar ‘fascism’ as the messy net force of diverse, multivalent agencies, of interactions and frictions, in the end of creative translation and trial-anderror. I argue that a focus on this mobility dynamic offers three advantages: first, it promotes the re-integration of diverse fragmented histories of interwar fascism; second, it is capable of exposing the dynamic co-production of the political history of ‘fascist’ over time and space; and third, it fosters a far better understanding of the reasons for the ideological travel and political traction of radical ideas and politics in interwar years.

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Mar 9, 2020
Publication Date Apr 1, 2021
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal European History Quarterly
Print ISSN 0265-6914
Publisher SAGE Publications
Volume 51
Issue 2
Pages 189-213
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/02656914211006307
Keywords fascism, diffusion, transnational, norm localisation, authoritarianism, mobilities
Publisher URL https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02656914211006307

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