Toward a critical sociology of global far-right education

This article examines the rise of the global far right as a cross-national networked political project. While education is central to the far-right’s international authoritarian projects and ambitions, sociologists have been slow to examine the centrality of education to the global far right. Drawing on the so-called “international turn” in far-right studies, this article outlines four pillars of a global far-right educational architecture and then proposes elements to a critical sociology to map, analyze, counter, and resist it. The article argues that liberal defenses of pluralistic education and academic freedom are necessary but insufficient, and that countering far-right educational sociologies and politics requires historically-grounded analyses of crises of capitalism, class, racialization, state violence, and imperial power. Ultimately, the article calls for an international critical sociology committed not only to mapping and diagnosing far-right educational infrastructures, but also to defending, democratizing, and reimagining education as a public and radical democratic good.