CFP: Critical Theories of Fascism - Lisbon Praxis Summer School 2026

Until recently, there was a general assumption that fascism had been decisively defeated, because the horrors of WWII seemed to have left fascism morally bankrupt and politically untenable. Yet, in the early twenty-first century, the spectre of fascism has resurfaced. This re-emergence should not be understood as a simple repetition of the 1930s, but rather as the mutation of fascist tendencies into contemporary conditions.  One of its defining features is the appropriation of democracy itself. Across different contexts, authoritarian movements have risen to power through electoral means, exploiting popular discontent with mainstream politics and using democratic institutions to advance illiberal agendas. Their rhetoric frequently invokes a narrative of national rebirth, the restoration of a lost ‘greatness,’ and the reclamation of sovereignty from ‘corrupt elites,’ ‘globalists,’ and ‘dangerous outsiders.’ Furthermore, contemporary fascism permeates everyday life, normalizing misogyny, homophobia, and racism, and fostering an atmosphere in which authoritarianism appears desirable or inevitable. Its resurgence is closely tied to the expansion of digital media, which accelerates the spread of conspiracy theories, hate speech, and extremist propaganda. Online platforms serve not only as organizational hubs but also as aesthetic arenas where fascist symbols are repackaged in playful or subcultural styles, obscuring their violent and destructive implications.

While the ways through which fascism is currently expressed are becoming increasingly visible, the causes of its re-emergence are more complex, and so are the challenges they pose to theory. Max Horkheimer famously said that ‘Whoever is not willing to talk about capitalism should also keep quiet about fascism’, implying that fascism is always in the background everywhere where capitalism reigns and it intensifies when capitalist realities become unbearable. In this sense, globalisation and neoliberalism have produced widening inequalities, labour precarity, and a pervasive sense of uncertainty and dislocation — fertile ground for fascist narratives that promise security, belonging, and stability. Yet the Marxist tradition sustained a robust critique of capitalism during the decades of emergence of neoliberalism and globalisation — decades in which fascism was widely considered defeated —  but this alone did not prevent its resurgence. Understanding fascism’s reappearance therefore requires a more expansive analysis of its ideological complexity, attending not only to its entanglement with capital, but also to race, gender, nation, and empire. At the same time, as Theodor W. Adorno observed, fascism possesses an ‘intrinsically untheoretical nature.’ For this reason, the premise of this Lisbon Praxis Summer School is that fascism’s conditions of emergence and its ways of operating can — and must — be grasped through renewed critical resources.

With the aim of mobilising Critical Theory’s analytical and explanatory force to understand the contemporary resurgence of fascism and to explore possibilities for its eradication, the Lisbon Praxis Summer School 2026 will address the following clusters of questions:

• What is fascism, and how does Critical Theory conceptualize it? What are the continuities and ruptures between the early Frankfurt School’s critique of fascism and contemporary Critical Theory’s approaches to fascism? Can fascism be grasped otherwise than through critique, or critique is the only way of depicting it, while other theoretical approaches risk being contaminated by it? What, precisely, is the object of critique in critique of fascism? Why does capitalism tend to prevail as the primary target of critique of fascism, while empire and colonialism remain a more tangential target?

• In what ways do contemporary fascist movements resemble or differ from historical fascism?  Is there a fascist rationality expressed across different historical contexts? How can the current global spread of fascism coexist with the processes of racialization and exclusion that fascism itself enacts? How do climate crisis, migration, and bio-politics intersect with new fascist imaginaries? How do gender, masculinity, and sexuality function in contemporary fascist fantasies? How do digital platforms reshape fascist mobilization and community-building? How does datafication, surveillance, and algorithmic governance produce new fascist tendencies?

• Is contemporary fascism still best understood as a symptom of capitalism’s recurring crises, or has it become an operative modality of contemporary capitalism itself? How does global capital intersect with — and potentially facilitate — the worldwide proliferation of fascist movements and regimes? What role do class interests play in the rise of fascist regimes? How do fears of globality and conspiracy theories contribute to the global emergence of fascism?  Can fascism be understood as a capitalist self-defense mechanism? Can liberal institutions coexist with fascistic practices, or is fascism inherently illiberal?

• What can Critical Theory do about fascism? What warning signs does Critical Theory offer for recognizing fascism early? How should we conceptualize resistance to fascism today? In what ways can feminism, anti-racism, and anti-colonial thought help us analyze and resist fascist tendencies? What are the philosophical and political foundations of anti-fascist thought, how have these evolved historically, and what challenges do they face in the present?

To apply for participation, graduate students and early career scholars are invited to submit a research statement reflecting their research interests in connection to the questions above and/or the following themes:

• • Frankfurt School’s Critical Theory of fascism
  • Methods of a Critical Theory of fascism
  • Fascism and political economy/political economy of fascism
  • Fascism and gender: anti-feminism and crises of masculinity
  • Fascism and technology/fascism of platforms and algorithms
  • Intersections of fascism with racism, coloniality, and class
  • Fascism and polycrisis: economic, ecological, democratic …
  • Fascism and capitalism: neoliberalism, financialization, and austerity
  • The philosophical and political foundations of anti-fascist thought and resistance
• Please submit your research statement and a short bio through the application form.