Using immersive film and virtual reality to research emotion and identity affective practices in the radical right: current and future prospects

Technological developments in the use of immersive film (i.e., 360 degree video) of events in public (and, potentially, private or liminal) spaces provide the basis for new forms of qualitative analysis that explore features of individual and collective emotions and identities. The paper considers how the possible ubiquity of 360 degree video recording and posting online may be exploited by radical right groups to give others affective experiences of events that they would not otherwise be able to attend. I will also address how these technologies are already part of considerations of where and how new virtual environments such as the Metaverse will be places in which videos and experiences ranging from real to augmented and virtual will be used by radical right actors to mobilize, support and challenge democratic processes and practices. In this paper, I highlight the use of immersive film in three new lines of research focusing on supporters of radical right-wing groups and movements which uses the interpretative theoretical framework of affective practices (Wetherell, 2012; Sullivan, 2021). The first example is the use of immersive film in interviews with people who attended an event to analyse personal and social emotional and identity features of their participation that can be missed by an overreliance on retrospective recall (which may be illustrated by data from a Black Lives Matter study depending on how data collection in Berlin proceeds). The second example is of a "Bild hermeneutic" type method for the analysis of affective practices in immersive 360 degree videos posted online (with details also depending on data collection) which explicitly considers features of embodiment, presence and immersiveness. The third example potentially combines the previous methods but applies them to analysing the use of immersive affective and embodied experiences created in augmented and virtual (e.g., animated) experiences (e.g., virtual experiences in museums) which aim to move participants to internalize radical right interpretations of history. The paper ends with a brief overview of policies and intervention practices that focus on how emotions and related practices and "mechanisms" (e.g., of sharing) are an important focus of further research.