The Shattering of the Romantic Dream : A qualitative study of defection processes from the White Power movement in Sweden

Sammanfattning: In times where acts of extremism are becoming increasingly evident an interest for the individuals who perform such acts has begun to take shape. Most people who engage in extreme organizations tend to eventually leave them, yet there is still uncertainty about why and how people manage to do so. The purpose of this study was to add to the understanding of defection processes from the White Power movement by studying how emotions and relationships contribute to such processes. Using Herbert Blumer's symbolic interactionism as my springboard, and through interviews with nine former White Power activists, the study shows that leaving a White Power organization is divided into a differentiation between why and how activists leave. While disillusionment, guilt and fear tend to be reasons why activists eventually want to leave it is through their interaction with people in the outside community, for instance their children or a police officer, they manage to leave. Meeting with people with immigrant backgrounds was also crucial for the process of leaving the White Power movement, for seven of the respondents such meetings contributed to their deradicalization processes.