5
Writing Life Histories: Interviewing
Extreme Right-wing Activists1
How and why our activists entered an extreme right movement is the leading
question of this study. We chose to answer it through life-history interviews. This
choice has both theoretical and methodological implications. Theoretically, because
the employment of life history interviews implies that one seeks to understand
individual choices - in our case the choice to become and stay active in a movement
labeled as extreme right - as steps in personal trajectories (Blee and Taylor 2002).
The reasons for this involvement in the extreme right are sought in the individual’s
past. The interviewer and the interviewee travel back into time to the point where the
interviewee first encountered the ER-movement and reconstruct the trajectory from
then to present activism. Methodologically, because a life-history interview is
necessarily a qualitative form of data-collection that requires specific analytical tools
(Rubin and Rubin 1995). This chapter explains in detail which tools we used: how
we collected our data, how we selected our interviewees and how the interviews
were structured and analyzed. It ends with some afterthoughts about life history
interviews as a manner of collecting information about extreme right activists.
SAMPLING EXTREME RIGHT ACTIVISTS
As indicated the objective of our study was to interview militants rather than mere
supporters of extreme right organizations. It was agreed that in each country we
would aim for people at different levels in the movement, with an emphasis on the
lower echelons in the organizations rather than the leaders. We assumed that the
leaders have so often been interviewed and confronted with the question of how they
became involved in rightwing extremism that their stories would be too much
determined by public relations strategies. As for the selection of the organizations,
we chose, as we already explained (see Chapter 1) for each country a list of
organizations that indisputably were perceived as extreme right rather than
developing an a priori definition. Members of any of these organizations qualified
as interviewees. We also agreed that we would try to interview activists from both
political parties and other type of organizations. Furthermore, we decided to restrict
ourselves to those organizations that, as far as we were able to see, stayed within the
rules of the law. In each country the extreme right encompasses organizations that
are on the fringe of criminal organizations or at least in the twilight zone between
legal and illegal activities. These organizations were not included. Finally, we
attempted to diversify our interviews in terms of gender, age, region, and other
background variables. In fact, we deliberately over sampled female activists. In her
book on women in the Ku Klux Klan, Kathy Blee (2002) observed that research on
right-wing extremism tends to focus on men. As we did not want to make the same
mistake we made sure that we had enough women among our interviewees to be
able to shed some light on their specific position in the extreme right.
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In each country the study was introduced as a study on political engagement
initiated by the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. The interviewers could show the
interviewee an official letter on the university’s stationery signed by Prof.
Klandermans in his capacity as the project leader. It was emphasized that we would
treat the information provided in the interviews in an anonymous way, although
many an interviewee did not really mind. This was achieved by giving all our
interviewees pseudonyms and only revealing their gender, their age and membership
organization.
Within this framework the actual sampling strategies differed in the five countries,
although a mixture of snowball sampling and approaching potential interviewees at
meeting places was used everywhere. Indeed, options such as sampling from
membership lists were not feasible, as lists did not exist or were not made available
to us. In this section we will briefly describe the samples in the five countries (see
Appendix 1 for more details).
Flanders
In Flanders activists from three organizations were approached: Vlaams Blok
(Flemish
Block),
Voorpost
(Vanguard),
and
the
Nationalistische
Studentenvereniging (Nationalistic Student Association). The Vlaams Blok (VB) is
Flanders’ successful extreme rightwing political party; Voorpost (VP) is an extreme
right action group, while the Nationalistische Studentenvereniging (NSV) is an
extreme right student organization. In each of the three organizations some initial
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contacts were instrumental in referring the interviewer to other potential
interviewees. Eventually through snowballing, we were able to interview 28 activists
(7 female and 21 male) in Flanders - eleven from the VB (2 female and 9 male), nine
from VP (2 female and 7 male, and eight from the NSV (3 female and 5 male). The
interviewees came from different regions where the organizations were active:
Limburg, Antwerp and Louvain as far as the VB is concerned, Antwerp and EastFlanders as for VP, and the two Flemish universities towns (Louvain and Ghent) for
the NSV.
Eight of the Belgian interviewees had been involved for more than 12 years in their
organization; ten between 5 and 11 years and ten for 4 years or less. Some activists
occupied high level positions in the organization and some low level ones, but the
vast majority held positions at an intermediate level. They were between 18 and 59
years old, on average 33.8 years, members of the student association included, and
38.4 without the students. If one leaves the members of the student association out who were all enrolled at the university - most interviewees finished secondary
schooling. Six activists had a higher education. Except for two retirees and the
students, all interviewees were employed, mostly in white-collar jobs.
The Netherlands
In the Netherlands we interviewed 36 activists: 31 men and 5 women. They were
actively involved in one or more of the parties or organizations that composed the
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Dutch extreme right of those days: seventeen in the Centrum Democraten (Centre
Democrats, CD), eleven in the Centrum Partij ’86 (Centre Party, CP ’86) and later
some of those eleven in the VolksNationalisten Nederland (People’s Nationalists
Netherlands, VNN). Three of our interviewees participated in the Nederlands Blok
(Netherlands Block, NB), two in the Nederlandse Volksunie (Netherland’s People’s
Union, NVU), and three in Voorpost Nederland (Vanguard Netherlands, VPN). The
CD, CP ’86, the VNN, the NB, and the NVU were all five political parties; VPN
was a meeting point of rightwing extremists, but unlike its Flemish counterpart it
functioned more as a think tank than as an action group. Some of the people
approached were people known by us from websites of the movement or the antiextreme right countermovements. They were approached directly by phone, others
we reached through snowballing. A few activists who initially refused to be
interviewed agreed at a later stage, after hearing about our study from others in the
movement. Most of the interviewees came from the country’s large cities, but a few
were from urban areas.
In the Netherlands one third of the interviewees was actively involved in the
movement for more than twelve years, one third between five and eleven years, and
one third four years or less. Some interviewees were holding position within the
party or organization, such as chairmen, deputy-chairmen or board members of the
party, or chairmen or deputy-chairmen of a local branch or the youth-wing of the
party. Others occupied positions in the political arena. The average age of our
interviewees was 42.7 years - the youngest was 17 and the oldest 72. Two quarters
have a lower or higher level professional training, 10 activists had some college or
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high school degree, 6 of whom continued some kind of university education. Four
activists had little more than primary education. More than half of the interviewees
(20) had no paid job. Six were retired, fourteen were unemployed. The remaining 12
activists had a company of their own or were working for some employer often in
occupations that require little training such as taxi driver.
Germany
In Germany it was more difficult than in the other countries to get access to the
movement. Some organization refused to collaborate (Deutsche Volksunion German People’s Union - and Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschland - National
Democratic Party - both political parties), other we omitted because of the potential
unlawfulness of the organization or its members (Jungen Nationaldemokraten Young National Democrats). Eventually, some activists of the Republikaner (an ER
political party) agreed to collaborate. When the first few interviews were
successfully conducted others agreed to be interviewed - part of whom were reached
through snowballing technique, while others were approached at a national meeting
of the party. Eventually we interviewed 20 Republikaner (6 female and 14 male). In
order to get beyond the Republikaner (REP) the editorial team of Junge Freiheit
(Young Freedom - JF, an extreme right magazine) was approached. Four (male)
agreed to be interviewed. That brought the German sample at 24 (6 female and 18
male). The interviewees came from different regions of the country (6 from
Nordrhein Westfalen, 7 from Berlin, 3 from Baden-Württemberg, 4 from Bayern,
and 1 from Rheinland-Pfalz).
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Most German interviewees (15) had been affiliated for a period between 5 and 11
years to the Republikaner ; four for more than 12 years and four since less than five
years. In terms of their position in the organization, many in the German sample
were party officials. Thirteen occupied high positions, ten intermediate positions,
and only one interviewee occupied a lower level position in the party. Their age
ranged from 22 to 78 years, with an average age of 43.8. Eight of the German
activists had a university degree, two studied at the university but never finished,
while two were planning to study at the university in the future. The remaining 12
achieved some kind of secondary schooling. Only one interviewee was unemployed;
two were retired, two were students and one was a housewife. The eighteen other
activists occupied a variety of white-collar jobs.
Italy
In Italy we interviewed 33 activists: (8 female and 25 male). These interviewees
were actively involved in one of the three political parties that form the offspring of
the Movimento Sociale Italiano (National Social Movement, MSI), the former
fascist party. Eleven activists (4 female and 7 male) belonged to the Alleanza
Nazionale (National Alliance, AN); eleven (3 female and 8 male to the Movimento
Sociale-Fiamma Tricolore (Social Movement of the Three Coloured Flame, MSFT); eleven (1 female and 10 male) to the Movimento Fascismo e Libertà
(Movement for Fascism and Freedom, MFL). Members of the three organizations
were contacted by phone. Eight of the eleven interviewees, in each organization,
were from the north of Italy (mostly Milan), the remaining three from the south.
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A large proportion of the 33 Italian activists (18) had been involved in the extreme
right movement for more than 12 years, sometimes up to more than 50 years. Seven
Italians had been active in the extreme right for a period between five and eleven
years and eight since less than five years. Their position in the party ranked from
high level position to intermediate and low level. Their age ranged from 19 to 69
years old. The average age was 42.4. Twelve studied at the university, three of them
never finished. Four had little more than primary education, the remaining nineteen
went through secondary education. A few were still high school or university
students, three interviewees were retired, only one unemployed. The others were
working in a variety of positions, but only two or three one can consider as bluecollar positions.
France
In France we conducted 36 interviews (11 female and 25 male), all of which with
members of the Front National (FN). We made sure, however, to recruit
interviewees from the various currents that constitute the FN (royalists, Catholics,
new right, traditional right). The interviewees were approached at party events, local
party organizations and through snowballing. The French sample consisted
predominantly in very active members of the FN, to a lesser extent of party officials.
The interviewees came from the North and the South East of the country - two
regions where the FN is strong, and also from Paris.
Over one third of the interviewees had been actively involved in extreme right
politics for more than 12 years, mostly within the FN, although some had a personal
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history in the ER that went way beyond the history of the FN. A similar number had
been active in the extreme right field between five and eleven years, again mostly
within the FN, while nine for less than five years. The age of the French activists
ranged from 17 to 75. The average age was 38.5 years. The vast majority had higher
education (25), nine interviewees had secondary education and no more than 2 only
primary education. Eight of the interviewees were students; three were unemployed
and six retired. All but three of those who were employed held white-collar
positions.
Movement versus party
A first observation one can make is that the vast majority of our interviewees were
actively involved in a political party. In Italy and France this was the case for all
interviewees, while in the Netherlands and Germany this holds for all but a few.
Belgium is the only country that deviates from this pattern. In other words, activism
as discussed with our interviewees is predominantly political, partisan activism. This
is not necessarily a problem as the parties included in our study obviously are part of
the larger extreme right movement sector. And there appears to be a clear overlap
between the political parties and other movement organizations. On the one hand,
parties are coalitions of currents that exist within the extreme right in a country; on
the other hand those who were interviewed were usually involved in other ER
associations (youth movements, student’s organizations, cultural associations), and
voted without exception for the extreme right in recent elections. Nonetheless, the
majority of our interviewees will tell us stories about their involvement in a political
party.
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The quality of our sample
How representative of the extreme right activists are our samples in each country of
our study? This is a qualitative study. The samples are neither based on random
sampling nor on quota sampling methods. They try to encompass in each country the
most contrasted types of ER activists. They are like a magnifying glass. That means
that one should be cautious not to generalize beyond the possible. Yet, we believe
that in combination our interviews provide a reliable picture of rightwing extremists,
certainly as far as those actively involved in political parties are concerned. Indeed
the differences between the country samples are not completely random and do
reflect some of the known characteristics of the extreme right in the five countries. It
is obviously no accident that in Italy so many of our interviewees have been for
more than 12 years involved in the ER, nor is it by chance that in the Netherlands so
many occupy marginal positions in society. We believe also that it is not mere
coincidence that there are so few blue-collar workers among our activists. On the
one hand, activism in general is a role taken more often by individuals with more
social and cultural resources. On the other hand, ER organizations seem to be mostly
middle class white collar movements, as shown for instance by the studies of party
membership and Congress delegates of the FN in France (Ivaldi 1994; Ysmal 1991).
Such meaningful characteristics of our samples go with further variations on
characteristics like gender, age, duration of membership, position in the movement,
education, and employment. Altogether this makes us feel confident about the
quality of our samples and their capacity to provide us with a valid and reliable
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picture of extreme rightwing activism in our five countries in the last decade of the
20th century.
THE INTERVIEWS
Life history interviews are like travels through time. On the basis of an interview
scheme the interviewee is asked to go back in the past. In the course of the interview
the interviewer and the interviewee try to reconstruct a specific part of the
interviewee’s life. As our study concerned the interviewee’s career in a given
movement of the ER, the interview started with the question of when and how the
interviewee became involved in this movement. Subsequently, it moved on to
questions about what it is like to be actively involved in this field and whether the
interviewee had considered occasionally quitting activism. Two important additional
sections of the interview concerned social and political beliefs and attitudes, and
what it meant to the interviewee personally to be involved in such an organization
(see Table 5.1).
INSERT TABLE 5.1 NEAR HERE
In addition to the historical timeframe, the interview scheme is based on the
theoretical notions elaborated in Chapters 1 through 4. The first question aims at
distinguishing between continuity and conversion as entrance trajectories and the
role of agents of socialization, critical events and processes of mobilization in those
contexts. The second question aims at mapping the instrumentality component of the
interviewee’s motivation to participate. It concerns the costs and benefits of
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participation. The questions about social and political beliefs and attitudes are meant
to tap the ideology component of the motivation to participate. In addition to
questions which aimed directly at tapping political views, this section of the
interview encompassed projective tests based on four photographs shown to the
interviewee: a flag of the European Union, troops of the United Nations, a war
cemetery with one Star of David amidst hundreds of white crosses, hundreds of
Muslims praying in the streets of Marseille. This was meant as an unobtrusive way
to elicit ideological stands that interviewees might otherwise be reluctant to voice
particularly anti-Semitic and anti Muslim stands. The final question about the
meaning of someone’s activism relates to the identity component of the motivation
to participate.
The basic structure of the interviews was determined by the lead questions in Table
5.1. The interviewers disposed of a set of additional questions and probes for each
key-question in order to follow-up on the answers (see Appendix 2). The
interviewers were free to chose the order of the questions depending on the
interaction as it evolved as long as all the aspects mentioned in the scheme were
treated. Towards the end of the interview the interviewees were asked to answer a
set of biographical queries about their age, education, profession, position in the
organization, duration of their membership, etc.
Most interviews were conducted by the junior members of our team.2 All the
interviewers took part in interview training sessions. After the first few interviews
were conducted the team convened to discuss the experiences. On the basis of this
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discussion the interview scheme was finalized. In the course of the interview period
the junior members of the team met to discuss progress and experiences. In addition,
they exchanged experiences via email.
The majority of the interviews was conducted in 1997 and 1998. Some interviews
were conducted in 1999 as were some follow-up interviews. We left the interviewee
the choice of the location for the interview. Some interviews were in the
interviewee’s home, some were in public places such as restaurants or bars, and
some were in office space of the organization. All interviews were audio taped, but
only after the interviewee’s consent, which none refused to give. The interviews
lasted from one hour to many hours, but the modal interview was approximately 3
hours. All interviewers made notes before and after the interviews. In preparation of
an interview, interviewers tried to deepen their understanding of the organization the
interviewee participated in and if possible of the role of the interviewee in the
organization. Much was done to gain the confidence of the interviewee. Sometimes
by making several appointments. Many of these people have negative experiences
with interviews and journalists and were initially very distrustful. On the whole,
however, we believe that we succeeded in establishing the rapport needed for
reliable and valid interviews. This was evidenced by the many positive remarks our
interviewers received from their interviewees. Many of them enjoyed the interview.
Indeed, for many this was the first time that someone took the time and effort to
listen to their story and take it seriously.
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PROCESSING THE DATA
Data processing took place in several steps. First, all 157 interviews were fully
transcribed in their original language. Second, on the basis of our interview scheme
and theoretical notions we had developed a tentative coding scheme. This tentative
coding scheme was tested on the first five interviews. The experiences with the
coding were evaluated and used to improve the coding scheme. In fact, the junior
members of the team spent some days together working on the coding of some of
the interviews. As part of this step a limited number of interviews were co-rated by a
second coder. Comparison of coded interviews were used to sharpen the coding
scheme. Third, on the basis of the key-questions in the coding scheme the interviews
were summarized and exemplary quotes were selected for each interview. The
summaries and exemplary quotations were translated into English. Fourth, the actual
coding and analyzing of the full interviews was undertaken by the individual country
teams on the basis of the interviews in their original language.3
Transcription
The spoken text was fully transcribed. In a second step, matters such as intermittent
communication to a child, a spouse or a waiter, or reinforcing utterances by the
interviewer such as ‘hm’ or ‘yes’ were omitted, as were fillers used by the
interviewee such as ‘you know’ or ‘ehm’ unless they are clearly functional.
Transcribed text was entered in the computer to make it ready for processing.
Code book
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Table 5.2. presents a summary of the code book we developed (see Appendix 3 for
the complete code book as it was used in the actual coding). The coding scheme was
developed around five sections: processes of socialization, critical events, entry of
the organization, maintenance of commitment, and exit. Each section consists of
several code families. The elaboration of the code families is based on the
theoretical notions developed in the introductory chapters.
INSERT TABLE 5.2 NEAR HERE
The entry on ‘Socialization’ is meant to distill out of the interview what social
environment the activists grew up in, focusing on political socialization. Where did
the interviewees grew up, how was their relationship with their parents and the rest
of family, what experiences were important in their youth, what cues are there in the
course of their lives, that relates to their being active in a right-wing extremist
movement today? Which agents of socialization did influence them and what values
were transferred by them? This part of the coding is meant to map the ‘demand-side’
of activism and distinguish between different pathways to activism. How did the
readiness to become actively involved in rightwing extremism develop? Did
activists grew up in extreme right milieus? Were they interested in rightwing politics
early on or did they turn to the extreme right at a later point in their life? Is there any
evidence of abeyance structures that link today’s extreme right to the extreme right
from the past? What made our interviewees become interested in extreme right
activism - grievances, search for identity, ideological resonance?
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The entries on ‘Critical Events’ and ‘Entry of the Organization’ intend to describe
the process of mobilization. How was action preparedness translated into activism?
Did critical events serve as turning point in someone’s life? Was it the individual
who approached the organization or the organization that approached the individual?
What was the role of (friendship) networks?
The entry on ‘Maintenance of Commitment’ deals with actual activism. How does
the interviewee become structurally integrated in the organization and what is the
psychological meaning of activism to him. Structural integration concerns such
matters as time spent, type of activities, position within the organization, social
integration in the organization. Psychological meaning concerns the question of
whether activism is a gratifying experience. Does the ‘supply’ of activism satisfy the
‘demand’? Is the instrumental, identity and ideological motivation of activism being
served? In this part of the coding answers must be given to such questions as What
does it mean to the interviewees to be active? What do they get out of it? What are
the costs and benefits of activism? Does it give a sense of fulfillment? Why does it
make sense to be active? Does it give meaning to the world?
The entry on ‘Exit’ concerns the question of whether the interviewees have
considered to quit. It tries to assess what costs and benefits in the eyes of the
interviewees are associated with disengagement. Note that some interviewees
quitted after we had interviewed them. We were able to re-interview some of these
people that had abandoned activism.
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Summarizing and coding
The coding of the interviews was in all countries done by the members of the team
who also conducted the interviews. Before the actual coding was undertaken the
interviews were read once again and summarized on the basis of the key-questions
in the coding scheme. Per interview we also selected exemplary quotations for each
key-question. Summarizing the interviews was an important step necessary to
master the content of the interviews for the eventual coding.4
Everybody got some training in the use of Atlas.ti-software to analyze written text
(Miles and Huberman 1984; Muhr 1997) - but it was decided to leave it at the
discretion of the country-teams whether or not to use the software as long as they
employed the agreed upon coding scheme. Eventually, different strategies were
employed to code the interviews in the various countries.
SOME AFTERTHOUGHTS
At the time when we designed our study we felt that the best way to find an answer
to our research questions would be to conduct life history interviews. We believed
that, activists of the extreme right are as rational or irrational as any movement
activist and wanted to understand the reasoning behind their activism. What does a
world look like in which rightwing extremism is meaningful and how does someone
come to see the world that way? As we thought that personal experiences play an
important role in that respect (Teske 1997; Andrews 1991; Blee 2002) life histories
appeared to us a significant source of information. In the life of every activist there
is a point in time where he or she makes the transition from non-active to active.
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Such transitions seldom take place overnight, although conversions sometimes give
that impression. The final step to enter activism usually comes at the end of longer
trajectories. It was these trajectories that we were interested in. Whether it was a
conversion or a continuous track, we wanted to reconstruct it and understand its
dynamics. Such a reconstruction is difficult to undertake within the framework of a
structured questionnaire. Both the interviewer and the interviewee need the freedom
to elaborate on the story to be told. Therefore, life history interviews are necessarily
in-depth interviews. It is difficult to imagine how otherwise one could explore
someone’s past. Events that took place long time ago must be recollected, matters
that are sensitive to the interviewee must be dealt with, and complicated stories must
be told. We put a lot of effort into establishing the rapport needed for such
interviews to work out and we believe that in most cases we succeeded.
This is not to say that we took everything the interviewees told us for real. In fact,
we put quite a lot of time and energy in acquiring independent information about the
interviewees, the organizations, the events, and the people they were talking about.
We scrutinized websites, written material from the organization, documentation
available through the countermovements5 and other sources. Moreover, frequently
our interviewees themselves provided unknowingly validation of the stories told by
the others. In this way we were basically able to check most of the factual
information given by the interviewees. Their interpretation of those facts remains, of
course, idiosyncratic. One must be careful to not take the reconstruction that results
from the interview as the real story. It remains a reconstruction (Blee and Taylor
2002), but this is exactly what we were interested in.
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When we approached people to gain their co-operation, we were often treated with
suspicion for understandable reasons. The extreme right has been portrayed in the
media in a very negative way. Their organizations have been infiltrated by
undercover journalists who filled the newspapers with stories about the life
backstage that the people try to cover up at front stage. In our efforts to counter these
suspicions we were, however, careful to not make the opposite mistake and suggest
that we were sympathetic to their objectives. In our team we spent quite some time
on the ethics of getting along with a movement and activists we did not sympathize
with. Every cookbook on in-depth interviewing tells you that you got to establish a
relationship with your interviewees to be able to do good interviews. But, how does
one establish a relationship with people to whom one doesn’t feel akin at all? The
usual recipe - show understanding and appreciate their viewpoints - was not what we
wanted. We certainly did not want to give the impression that we agreed with what
they were saying. Interestingly, our method - the life-history interview - worked to
our advantage. We basically wanted our interviewees to tell us about their past and
what it meant to them to be actively involved in their organization. There was no
need for them to defend themselves, as we were genuinely interested in their views
and why these views motivated them to become an extreme right activist. Evidence
of our ability to establish rapport came from the interviewees themselves who began
to call us back to give additional information or to invite us to meetings, social
events, gatherings, lectures, and the like. Such invitations we often accepted as we
felt that it would help us to deepen our understanding of their activism. In France
and the Netherlands such enduring relations could be fruitfully exploited to return to
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some of the interviewees for a second round of interviews after significant changes
in the movement (the split within the FN and the devastating elections in the
Netherlands) had occurred.
We had expected that it would be difficult to persuade people to be interviewed, and
indeed in Germany it appeared to be not easy to get access to organizations we
wanted to include in our study, but on the whole the activists were quite cooperative,
especially after the first suspicion was evaporated. Indeed, on quite a few occasions
these were people who wanted to talk, who had a message to convey. Once they
figured that in fact the interviews remained confidential and did not appear in a
newspaper, they became even more willing sometimes even anxious to be
interviewed. It certainly helped not to include the more violent groups in our study.
In fact, our interviewees were basically ‘normal’ people, socially integrated,
connected in one way or another to mainstream groups and ideas.
1
This chapter has been co-authored by all members of the team.
2
The interviews in the Netherlands were conducted by Annette Linden; the interviews in Germany
by Ludger Klein, those in Italy by Patrizia Milesi, Alberto Crescentini, and Antonello Chirumbolo;
and the interviews in France were conducted by Valérie Lafont. In Flanders it was Hans de Witte who
conducted the interviews with Voorpost, while some of his students conducted the remaining
interviews: Kaat Bilsen (VB), and Alexander Vander Stichele, Marjan Vertommen, Bart Jansen, and
Patrick Fransen (NSV).
3
Even if translation of the fully transcribed interviews were feasible, it would in all likelihood have
produced flawed translations as many of the subtle meanings of colloquial language would have been
lost in the translation. Moreover, understanding the meaning may require an indigene anyway, as
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many unobtrusive cues given in the interview are only understandable for someone who is part of the
society.
4
As an important side-product the summaries and exemplary quotations were translated into English
and made available to all members of the team. Together with the fully transcribed interviews they
form the data-file of our study.
5
The documentation available through the countermovement in some countries appears to be
amazingly detailed and reliable.
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