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A Tornberg

Biographic Data

ID71496
NAMEA Tornberg
GIVEN NAMESA
FAMILY NAMETornberg
SIGNATURETORNBERG A
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of Gothenburg
ORCID0000-0002-5847-3033
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS24
TOTAL CITATIONS221
AUTHOR COUNT24
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2014
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX8
  • Evolving Scripts of Nativist Violence? A Latent Class Analysis of Violent Crime Against Migrants in Sweden, 2009–2022

    Open Access•Måns Lundstedt, A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Deviant Behavior•2026

    This article examines the structure and evolution of violent nativist crime in Sweden between 2009 and 2022. Drawing on a novel dataset of 2,522 incidents generated from the full register of police reports of violent criminal offenses with suspected hate motives, the study conceptualizes such violence as composed of recurring “violent scripts” – configurations of actors, settings, means, and actions. Using latent class analysis (LCA), the study i…

  • Xenophobic violence in Sweden 2009–2022: Introducing the dataset

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Måns Lundstedt et al.•ARTICLE•Research & Politics•2026

    We present a new event dataset on xenophobic violence in Sweden, covering all police-reported, hate-crime-flagged incidents involving physical violence between 2009 and 2022 (n = 2,522). The dataset provides a nationally complete and georeferenced record of violent xenophobic offences, combining programmatic extraction of structured police records with manual coding of free-text narratives under transparent inclusion criteria. It includes detaile…

  • From YouTube to Parliament: The dual role of political influencers in shaping climate change discourse

    Open Access•Victoria Vallström, A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Environmental Sociology•2025•Cited by: 3•References: 12

  • Rituals of resentment: How dark emotional energy fuels incel identity and solidarity

    Open Access•Patrik Kallio, A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Acta Sociologica•2025•Cited by: 1•References: 44

    The incel community presents an intriguing case within social movement studies, marked by a collective sense of victimhood, a negative collective identity, and a self-deprecating view that starkly contrasts with the positive self-image and objectives typical of most social movements. This discrepancy raises questions about what motivates members to continually engage with the community. This study conducts online observations and discourse analys…

  • The aesthetics of climate misinformation: Computational multimodal framing analysis with Bertopic and CLIP

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Petter Törnberg•ARTICLE•Environmental Politics•2025•References: 53

    Climate misinformation today is increasingly conveyed through multimodal content, where images and text interact to shape meaning, emotional resonance, and enhance credibility. Yet, research on climate misinformation has rarely explored how these modes work in tandem. This paper introduces a multimodal analytical framework to examine climate-related visual misinformation. Analyzing 17,848 image-text posts, we combine BERTopic, CLIP, and qualitati…

  • Asymmetric Alliances in Climate Misinformation: A Network Analysis of the Swedish Climate Change Countermovement

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Victoria Vallström•ARTICLE•Socius Sociological Research for…•2025•Cited by: 3•References: 50

    Climate change countermovements (CCCMs) play a central role in spreading misinformation and delaying policy action. Although most research has focused on the United States, less is known about CCCM networks in other national contexts. The authors analyze the Swedish online CCCM using social network analysis to (1) examine its structure and composition; (2) assess potential hierarchical influences, including how narratives flow from global think t…

  • Intimate Communities of Hate: Why Social Media Fuels Far-Right Extremism

    A Tornberg, Petter Törnberg•BOOK•Intimate Communities of Hate•2024

    Social media has fundamentally transformed political life, driving a surge in far-right extremism. In recent years, radical anti-democratic ideologies have entered into the political mainstream, fueled by energy from extreme online environments. But why do far-right extremist movements seem to thrive so well on social media platforms? What takes place within the fringe online spaces that seem to function as incubators for violent extremists? To a…

  • Mobilizing against Islam on social media: Hyperlink networking among European far-right extra-parliamentary Facebook groups

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Ada Nissen et al.•ARTICLE•Information Communication & Society•2023

    The far right is notoriously effective in its use of digital media to mobilize people and to build a sense of collective identity around oppositional cultures. Yet, while research has begun to explore far-right groups' social media hyperlinking activities, relatively little is known about the purposes and communicative functions of this form of communication. By combining social network analysis and qualitative content analysis on Facebook data o…

  • White supremacists anonymous: How Digital Media Emotionally Energize Far-Right Movements

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Petter Törnberg•ARTICLE•Journal of Information Technology…•2023•Cited by: 5•References: 11

    Digital media platforms have been implicated in the recent rise of far-right extremism. This study proposes that these platforms afford emotional processes that lie at the core of far-right movements. Drawing on Randall Collins’ interactional framework and the literature on cultural trauma, we investigate the emotional processes triggered by traumatic experiences within far-right online communities. As a case, we examine how the white supremacist…

  • Local Conditions for Anti-immigrant Violence: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) of Asylum Housing Attacks in Sweden

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Mattias Wahlström et al.•ARTICLE•Terrorism and Political Violence•2023

    This study uses a novel approach to identifying local contextual conditions conducive, alone or in combination to far-right political violence. The studied case is asylum housing attacks occurring in Sweden 2015–16. Using a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis of eighty-six Swedish municipalities, forty-two of which have experienced arson attacks against refugee housing facilities, we operationalize and test four hypotheses derived from the…

  • Inside a White Power echo chamber: Why fringe digital spaces are polarizing politics

    Open Access•Petter Törnberg, A Tornberg•ARTICLE•New Media & Society•2022•Cited by: 8•References: 17

    Recent decades have seen a blurring of the line between extremist movements and mainstream politics, driven by rising sectarian polarization. This development has been linked to digital media, with suggestions that so-called echo chambers may drive political radicalization. To understand the social processes taking place inside such digital spaces, this article draws on Randall Collins and the Durkheimian tradition to develop a theory of discursi…

  • Prefigurative politics and social change: A typology drawing on transition studies

    Open Access•A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Distinktion Journal of Social…•2021•Cited by: 17•References: 31

    Recent years have seen a surge of interest in prefigurative politics, which refers to the political strategies that model a future society on a micro level and aim to instantiate radical social change in and through practice. While most previous studies have focused on defining the concept and categorizing various types of prefiguration, this paper contributes by investigating under what circumstances prefiguration leads to revolutionary social c…

  • Wake-Up Call for the White Race: How Stormfront Framed the Elections of Obama and Trump

    A Tornberg, Petter Törnberg•ARTICLE•Mobilization An International…•2021•Cited by: 8•References: 7

    We investigate how users on a prominent forum for white supremacists interpreted and framed two seminal events for the far-right in the U.S., the elections of Obama in 2008 and Trump in 2016. These cases precipitated dramatic shifts in the far-right alliance and conflict structure. We combine computational methods and qualitative analysis on a corpus of over ten million posts on Stormfront.org to show how movement actors framed institutional chan…

  • Social Media Mechanisms for Right-Wing Political Violence in the 21st Century: Discursive Opportunities, Group Dynamics, and Co-Ordination

    Open Access•Mattias Wahlström, A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Terrorism and Political Violence•2021•Cited by: 15

    This article maps mechanisms by which online social media activities may contribute to right-wing political violence. High-impact studies on the wave of right-wing and racist violence in the 1990s and early 2000s established that mass media discourse on immigrants and previous violent incidents had a significant influence on the prevalence of radical right violence. This link was captured by Koopmans's and Olzak’s notion of discursive opportuniti…

  • Dynamics of violent and dehumanizing rhetoric in far-right social media

    Open Access•Mattias Wahlström, A Tornberg et al.•ARTICLE•New Media & Society•2020•Cited by: 30•References: 17

    This article sheds light on mechanisms by which online social interactions contribute to instigating far-right political violence. It presents an analysis of how violence against ethnic and religious minorities is motivated and legitimized in social media, as well as the situational conditions for such violent rhetoric. Online violent rhetoric in a Swedish public far-right social media discussion group was studied using a combination of machine-l…

  • Unveiling the radical right online: Exploring framing and identity in an online anti-immigrant discussion group

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Mattias Wahlström•ARTICLE•Sociologisk Forskning•2018•Cited by: 7

    Radical right online discussion groups have grown in importance in the Swedish political landscape, yet the dynamics of these groups are still poorly understood. Apart from their topical import, these groups provide a unique entrance to grassroots discourses of the radical right movement and the mechanisms for radical nationalist mobilization. In this paper, we present an analysis of the largest current anti-immigrant online discussion group in S…

  • Abstractions on steroids: A critical realist approach to computer simulations

    Open Access•A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Journal for the Theory of Social…•2018•Cited by: 1•References: 29

    Computer simulations are increasingly used within various fields of the social sciences, including analytical sociology and computational social science. However, the method has yet to fully find its place within critical realism, generally regarded as reductionist and methodological individualist and thus inadequate to the task of grasping the full and enigmatic complexity of social life. This article contributes to the discussion by suggesting …

  • The limits of computation: A philosophical critique of contemporary Big Data research

    Open Access•Petter Törnberg, A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Big Data & Society•2018•Cited by: 8•References: 44

    This paper reviews the contemporary discussion on the epistemological and ontological effects of Big Data within social science, observing an increased focus on relationality and complexity, and a tendency to naturalize social phenomena. The epistemic limits of this emerging computational paradigm are outlined through a comparison with the discussions in the early days of digitalization, when digital technology was primarily seen through the lens…

  • Combining transition studies and social movement theory: Towards a New Research Agenda

    Open Access•A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Theory and Society•2018•Cited by: 8•References: 57

    This article addresses two central—yet insufficiently explored—characteristics of some social movements: i.) abrupt and rapid social mobilizations leading to ii.) the construction of novel political processes and structures. The article takes a novel approach to these issues by combining social movement literature and the notion of free social spaces with transition studies, which focuses on large-scale socio-technical transitions. This theoretic…

  • Modelling free social spaces and the diffusion of social mobilization

    A Tornberg, Petter Törnberg•ARTICLE•Social movement studies•2017•Cited by: 4•References: 56

    Free social spaces have long been emphasized in the social movement literature. Under names such as safe spaces, social havens, and counterpublics, they have been characterized as protective shelters against prevailing hegemonic ideologies and as hubs for the diffusion of ideas and ideologies. However, the vast literature on these spaces has predominantly focused on internal dynamics and processes, thus neglecting how they relate to the diffusion…

  • Muslims in social media discourse: Combining topic modeling and critical discourse analysis

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Petter Törnberg•ARTICLE•Discourse Context & Media•2016•Cited by: 31•References: 6

    This article combines topic modeling and critical discourse analysis to examine patterns of representation around the words Muslim and Islam in a 105 million word corpus of a large Swedish Internet forum from 2000 to 2013. Despite the increased importance of social media in the (re)production of discursive power in society, this is the first study of its kind. The analysis shows that Muslims are portrayed in the forum as a homogeneous outgroup th…

  • Combining CDA and topic modeling: Analyzing discursive connections between Islamophobia and anti-feminism on an online forum

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Petter Törnberg•ARTICLE•Discourse & Society•2016•Cited by: 28•References: 6

    In this article we present an analysis of the discursive connections between Islamophobia and anti-feminism on a large Internet forum. We argue that the incipient shift from traditional media toward user-driven social media brings with it new media dynamics, relocating the (re)production of societal discourses and power structures and thus bringing about new ways in which discursive power is exercised. This clearly motivates the need to criticall…

  • Societal systems – Complex or worse

    Open Access•Claes Andersson, A Tornberg et al.•ARTICLE•Futures•2014•Cited by: 23•References: 37

  • An Evolutionary Developmental Approach to Cultural Evolution

    Claes Andersson, A Tornberg et al.•ARTICLE•Current Anthropology•2014•Cited by: 21•References: 117

    Evolutionary developmental theories in biology see the processes and organization of organisms as crucial for understanding the dynamic behavior of organic evolution. Darwinian forces are seen as necessary but not sufficient for explaining observed evolutionary patterns. We here propose that the same arguments apply with even greater force to culture vis-à-vis cultural evolution. In order not to argue entirely in the abstract, we demonstrate the …

  • Muslims in social media discourse: Combining topic modeling and critical discourse analysis

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Petter Törnberg•ARTICLE•Discourse Context & Media•2016•Cited by: 31•References: 6

    This article combines topic modeling and critical discourse analysis to examine patterns of representation around the words Muslim and Islam in a 105 million word corpus of a large Swedish Internet forum from 2000 to 2013. Despite the increased importance of social media in the (re)production of discursive power in society, this is the first study of its kind. The analysis shows that Muslims are portrayed in the forum as a homogeneous outgroup th…

  • Dynamics of violent and dehumanizing rhetoric in far-right social media

    Open Access•Mattias Wahlström, A Tornberg et al.•ARTICLE•New Media & Society•2020•Cited by: 30•References: 17

    This article sheds light on mechanisms by which online social interactions contribute to instigating far-right political violence. It presents an analysis of how violence against ethnic and religious minorities is motivated and legitimized in social media, as well as the situational conditions for such violent rhetoric. Online violent rhetoric in a Swedish public far-right social media discussion group was studied using a combination of machine-l…

  • Combining CDA and topic modeling: Analyzing discursive connections between Islamophobia and anti-feminism on an online forum

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Petter Törnberg•ARTICLE•Discourse & Society•2016•Cited by: 28•References: 6

    In this article we present an analysis of the discursive connections between Islamophobia and anti-feminism on a large Internet forum. We argue that the incipient shift from traditional media toward user-driven social media brings with it new media dynamics, relocating the (re)production of societal discourses and power structures and thus bringing about new ways in which discursive power is exercised. This clearly motivates the need to criticall…

  • Societal systems – Complex or worse

    Open Access•Claes Andersson, A Tornberg et al.•ARTICLE•Futures•2014•Cited by: 23•References: 37

  • An Evolutionary Developmental Approach to Cultural Evolution

    Claes Andersson, A Tornberg et al.•ARTICLE•Current Anthropology•2014•Cited by: 21•References: 117

    Evolutionary developmental theories in biology see the processes and organization of organisms as crucial for understanding the dynamic behavior of organic evolution. Darwinian forces are seen as necessary but not sufficient for explaining observed evolutionary patterns. We here propose that the same arguments apply with even greater force to culture vis-à-vis cultural evolution. In order not to argue entirely in the abstract, we demonstrate the …

  • Prefigurative politics and social change: A typology drawing on transition studies

    Open Access•A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Distinktion Journal of Social…•2021•Cited by: 17•References: 31

    Recent years have seen a surge of interest in prefigurative politics, which refers to the political strategies that model a future society on a micro level and aim to instantiate radical social change in and through practice. While most previous studies have focused on defining the concept and categorizing various types of prefiguration, this paper contributes by investigating under what circumstances prefiguration leads to revolutionary social c…

  • Social Media Mechanisms for Right-Wing Political Violence in the 21st Century: Discursive Opportunities, Group Dynamics, and Co-Ordination

    Open Access•Mattias Wahlström, A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Terrorism and Political Violence•2021•Cited by: 15

    This article maps mechanisms by which online social media activities may contribute to right-wing political violence. High-impact studies on the wave of right-wing and racist violence in the 1990s and early 2000s established that mass media discourse on immigrants and previous violent incidents had a significant influence on the prevalence of radical right violence. This link was captured by Koopmans's and Olzak’s notion of discursive opportuniti…

  • Inside a White Power echo chamber: Why fringe digital spaces are polarizing politics

    Open Access•Petter Törnberg, A Tornberg•ARTICLE•New Media & Society•2022•Cited by: 8•References: 17

    Recent decades have seen a blurring of the line between extremist movements and mainstream politics, driven by rising sectarian polarization. This development has been linked to digital media, with suggestions that so-called echo chambers may drive political radicalization. To understand the social processes taking place inside such digital spaces, this article draws on Randall Collins and the Durkheimian tradition to develop a theory of discursi…

  • Wake-Up Call for the White Race: How Stormfront Framed the Elections of Obama and Trump

    A Tornberg, Petter Törnberg•ARTICLE•Mobilization An International…•2021•Cited by: 8•References: 7

    We investigate how users on a prominent forum for white supremacists interpreted and framed two seminal events for the far-right in the U.S., the elections of Obama in 2008 and Trump in 2016. These cases precipitated dramatic shifts in the far-right alliance and conflict structure. We combine computational methods and qualitative analysis on a corpus of over ten million posts on Stormfront.org to show how movement actors framed institutional chan…

  • The limits of computation: A philosophical critique of contemporary Big Data research

    Open Access•Petter Törnberg, A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Big Data & Society•2018•Cited by: 8•References: 44

    This paper reviews the contemporary discussion on the epistemological and ontological effects of Big Data within social science, observing an increased focus on relationality and complexity, and a tendency to naturalize social phenomena. The epistemic limits of this emerging computational paradigm are outlined through a comparison with the discussions in the early days of digitalization, when digital technology was primarily seen through the lens…

  • Combining transition studies and social movement theory: Towards a New Research Agenda

    Open Access•A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Theory and Society•2018•Cited by: 8•References: 57

    This article addresses two central—yet insufficiently explored—characteristics of some social movements: i.) abrupt and rapid social mobilizations leading to ii.) the construction of novel political processes and structures. The article takes a novel approach to these issues by combining social movement literature and the notion of free social spaces with transition studies, which focuses on large-scale socio-technical transitions. This theoretic…

  • Unveiling the radical right online: Exploring framing and identity in an online anti-immigrant discussion group

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Mattias Wahlström•ARTICLE•Sociologisk Forskning•2018•Cited by: 7

    Radical right online discussion groups have grown in importance in the Swedish political landscape, yet the dynamics of these groups are still poorly understood. Apart from their topical import, these groups provide a unique entrance to grassroots discourses of the radical right movement and the mechanisms for radical nationalist mobilization. In this paper, we present an analysis of the largest current anti-immigrant online discussion group in S…

  • White supremacists anonymous: How Digital Media Emotionally Energize Far-Right Movements

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Petter Törnberg•ARTICLE•Journal of Information Technology…•2023•Cited by: 5•References: 11

    Digital media platforms have been implicated in the recent rise of far-right extremism. This study proposes that these platforms afford emotional processes that lie at the core of far-right movements. Drawing on Randall Collins’ interactional framework and the literature on cultural trauma, we investigate the emotional processes triggered by traumatic experiences within far-right online communities. As a case, we examine how the white supremacist…

  • Modelling free social spaces and the diffusion of social mobilization

    A Tornberg, Petter Törnberg•ARTICLE•Social movement studies•2017•Cited by: 4•References: 56

    Free social spaces have long been emphasized in the social movement literature. Under names such as safe spaces, social havens, and counterpublics, they have been characterized as protective shelters against prevailing hegemonic ideologies and as hubs for the diffusion of ideas and ideologies. However, the vast literature on these spaces has predominantly focused on internal dynamics and processes, thus neglecting how they relate to the diffusion…

  • From YouTube to Parliament: The dual role of political influencers in shaping climate change discourse

    Open Access•Victoria Vallström, A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Environmental Sociology•2025•Cited by: 3•References: 12

  • Asymmetric Alliances in Climate Misinformation: A Network Analysis of the Swedish Climate Change Countermovement

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Victoria Vallström•ARTICLE•Socius Sociological Research for…•2025•Cited by: 3•References: 50

    Climate change countermovements (CCCMs) play a central role in spreading misinformation and delaying policy action. Although most research has focused on the United States, less is known about CCCM networks in other national contexts. The authors analyze the Swedish online CCCM using social network analysis to (1) examine its structure and composition; (2) assess potential hierarchical influences, including how narratives flow from global think t…

  • Rituals of resentment: How dark emotional energy fuels incel identity and solidarity

    Open Access•Patrik Kallio, A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Acta Sociologica•2025•Cited by: 1•References: 44

    The incel community presents an intriguing case within social movement studies, marked by a collective sense of victimhood, a negative collective identity, and a self-deprecating view that starkly contrasts with the positive self-image and objectives typical of most social movements. This discrepancy raises questions about what motivates members to continually engage with the community. This study conducts online observations and discourse analys…

  • Abstractions on steroids: A critical realist approach to computer simulations

    Open Access•A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Journal for the Theory of Social…•2018•Cited by: 1•References: 29

    Computer simulations are increasingly used within various fields of the social sciences, including analytical sociology and computational social science. However, the method has yet to fully find its place within critical realism, generally regarded as reductionist and methodological individualist and thus inadequate to the task of grasping the full and enigmatic complexity of social life. This article contributes to the discussion by suggesting …

  • Societal systems – Complex or worse

    Open Access•Claes Andersson, A Tornberg et al.•ARTICLE•Futures•2014•Cited by: 23•References: 37

  • An Evolutionary Developmental Approach to Cultural Evolution

    Claes Andersson, A Tornberg et al.•ARTICLE•Current Anthropology•2014•Cited by: 21•References: 117

    Evolutionary developmental theories in biology see the processes and organization of organisms as crucial for understanding the dynamic behavior of organic evolution. Darwinian forces are seen as necessary but not sufficient for explaining observed evolutionary patterns. We here propose that the same arguments apply with even greater force to culture vis-à-vis cultural evolution. In order not to argue entirely in the abstract, we demonstrate the …

  • Muslims in social media discourse: Combining topic modeling and critical discourse analysis

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Petter Törnberg•ARTICLE•Discourse Context & Media•2016•Cited by: 31•References: 6

    This article combines topic modeling and critical discourse analysis to examine patterns of representation around the words Muslim and Islam in a 105 million word corpus of a large Swedish Internet forum from 2000 to 2013. Despite the increased importance of social media in the (re)production of discursive power in society, this is the first study of its kind. The analysis shows that Muslims are portrayed in the forum as a homogeneous outgroup th…

  • Combining CDA and topic modeling: Analyzing discursive connections between Islamophobia and anti-feminism on an online forum

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Petter Törnberg•ARTICLE•Discourse & Society•2016•Cited by: 28•References: 6

    In this article we present an analysis of the discursive connections between Islamophobia and anti-feminism on a large Internet forum. We argue that the incipient shift from traditional media toward user-driven social media brings with it new media dynamics, relocating the (re)production of societal discourses and power structures and thus bringing about new ways in which discursive power is exercised. This clearly motivates the need to criticall…

  • Modelling free social spaces and the diffusion of social mobilization

    A Tornberg, Petter Törnberg•ARTICLE•Social movement studies•2017•Cited by: 4•References: 56

    Free social spaces have long been emphasized in the social movement literature. Under names such as safe spaces, social havens, and counterpublics, they have been characterized as protective shelters against prevailing hegemonic ideologies and as hubs for the diffusion of ideas and ideologies. However, the vast literature on these spaces has predominantly focused on internal dynamics and processes, thus neglecting how they relate to the diffusion…

  • Unveiling the radical right online: Exploring framing and identity in an online anti-immigrant discussion group

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Mattias Wahlström•ARTICLE•Sociologisk Forskning•2018•Cited by: 7

    Radical right online discussion groups have grown in importance in the Swedish political landscape, yet the dynamics of these groups are still poorly understood. Apart from their topical import, these groups provide a unique entrance to grassroots discourses of the radical right movement and the mechanisms for radical nationalist mobilization. In this paper, we present an analysis of the largest current anti-immigrant online discussion group in S…

  • Abstractions on steroids: A critical realist approach to computer simulations

    Open Access•A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Journal for the Theory of Social…•2018•Cited by: 1•References: 29

    Computer simulations are increasingly used within various fields of the social sciences, including analytical sociology and computational social science. However, the method has yet to fully find its place within critical realism, generally regarded as reductionist and methodological individualist and thus inadequate to the task of grasping the full and enigmatic complexity of social life. This article contributes to the discussion by suggesting …

  • The limits of computation: A philosophical critique of contemporary Big Data research

    Open Access•Petter Törnberg, A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Big Data & Society•2018•Cited by: 8•References: 44

    This paper reviews the contemporary discussion on the epistemological and ontological effects of Big Data within social science, observing an increased focus on relationality and complexity, and a tendency to naturalize social phenomena. The epistemic limits of this emerging computational paradigm are outlined through a comparison with the discussions in the early days of digitalization, when digital technology was primarily seen through the lens…

  • Combining transition studies and social movement theory: Towards a New Research Agenda

    Open Access•A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Theory and Society•2018•Cited by: 8•References: 57

    This article addresses two central—yet insufficiently explored—characteristics of some social movements: i.) abrupt and rapid social mobilizations leading to ii.) the construction of novel political processes and structures. The article takes a novel approach to these issues by combining social movement literature and the notion of free social spaces with transition studies, which focuses on large-scale socio-technical transitions. This theoretic…

  • Dynamics of violent and dehumanizing rhetoric in far-right social media

    Open Access•Mattias Wahlström, A Tornberg et al.•ARTICLE•New Media & Society•2020•Cited by: 30•References: 17

    This article sheds light on mechanisms by which online social interactions contribute to instigating far-right political violence. It presents an analysis of how violence against ethnic and religious minorities is motivated and legitimized in social media, as well as the situational conditions for such violent rhetoric. Online violent rhetoric in a Swedish public far-right social media discussion group was studied using a combination of machine-l…

  • Prefigurative politics and social change: A typology drawing on transition studies

    Open Access•A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Distinktion Journal of Social…•2021•Cited by: 17•References: 31

    Recent years have seen a surge of interest in prefigurative politics, which refers to the political strategies that model a future society on a micro level and aim to instantiate radical social change in and through practice. While most previous studies have focused on defining the concept and categorizing various types of prefiguration, this paper contributes by investigating under what circumstances prefiguration leads to revolutionary social c…

  • Wake-Up Call for the White Race: How Stormfront Framed the Elections of Obama and Trump

    A Tornberg, Petter Törnberg•ARTICLE•Mobilization An International…•2021•Cited by: 8•References: 7

    We investigate how users on a prominent forum for white supremacists interpreted and framed two seminal events for the far-right in the U.S., the elections of Obama in 2008 and Trump in 2016. These cases precipitated dramatic shifts in the far-right alliance and conflict structure. We combine computational methods and qualitative analysis on a corpus of over ten million posts on Stormfront.org to show how movement actors framed institutional chan…

  • Social Media Mechanisms for Right-Wing Political Violence in the 21st Century: Discursive Opportunities, Group Dynamics, and Co-Ordination

    Open Access•Mattias Wahlström, A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Terrorism and Political Violence•2021•Cited by: 15

    This article maps mechanisms by which online social media activities may contribute to right-wing political violence. High-impact studies on the wave of right-wing and racist violence in the 1990s and early 2000s established that mass media discourse on immigrants and previous violent incidents had a significant influence on the prevalence of radical right violence. This link was captured by Koopmans's and Olzak’s notion of discursive opportuniti…

  • Inside a White Power echo chamber: Why fringe digital spaces are polarizing politics

    Open Access•Petter Törnberg, A Tornberg•ARTICLE•New Media & Society•2022•Cited by: 8•References: 17

    Recent decades have seen a blurring of the line between extremist movements and mainstream politics, driven by rising sectarian polarization. This development has been linked to digital media, with suggestions that so-called echo chambers may drive political radicalization. To understand the social processes taking place inside such digital spaces, this article draws on Randall Collins and the Durkheimian tradition to develop a theory of discursi…

  • Mobilizing against Islam on social media: Hyperlink networking among European far-right extra-parliamentary Facebook groups

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Ada Nissen et al.•ARTICLE•Information Communication & Society•2023

    The far right is notoriously effective in its use of digital media to mobilize people and to build a sense of collective identity around oppositional cultures. Yet, while research has begun to explore far-right groups' social media hyperlinking activities, relatively little is known about the purposes and communicative functions of this form of communication. By combining social network analysis and qualitative content analysis on Facebook data o…

  • White supremacists anonymous: How Digital Media Emotionally Energize Far-Right Movements

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Petter Törnberg•ARTICLE•Journal of Information Technology…•2023•Cited by: 5•References: 11

    Digital media platforms have been implicated in the recent rise of far-right extremism. This study proposes that these platforms afford emotional processes that lie at the core of far-right movements. Drawing on Randall Collins’ interactional framework and the literature on cultural trauma, we investigate the emotional processes triggered by traumatic experiences within far-right online communities. As a case, we examine how the white supremacist…

  • Local Conditions for Anti-immigrant Violence: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) of Asylum Housing Attacks in Sweden

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Mattias Wahlström et al.•ARTICLE•Terrorism and Political Violence•2023

    This study uses a novel approach to identifying local contextual conditions conducive, alone or in combination to far-right political violence. The studied case is asylum housing attacks occurring in Sweden 2015–16. Using a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis of eighty-six Swedish municipalities, forty-two of which have experienced arson attacks against refugee housing facilities, we operationalize and test four hypotheses derived from the…

  • Intimate Communities of Hate: Why Social Media Fuels Far-Right Extremism

    A Tornberg, Petter Törnberg•BOOK•Intimate Communities of Hate•2024

    Social media has fundamentally transformed political life, driving a surge in far-right extremism. In recent years, radical anti-democratic ideologies have entered into the political mainstream, fueled by energy from extreme online environments. But why do far-right extremist movements seem to thrive so well on social media platforms? What takes place within the fringe online spaces that seem to function as incubators for violent extremists? To a…

  • From YouTube to Parliament: The dual role of political influencers in shaping climate change discourse

    Open Access•Victoria Vallström, A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Environmental Sociology•2025•Cited by: 3•References: 12

  • Rituals of resentment: How dark emotional energy fuels incel identity and solidarity

    Open Access•Patrik Kallio, A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Acta Sociologica•2025•Cited by: 1•References: 44

    The incel community presents an intriguing case within social movement studies, marked by a collective sense of victimhood, a negative collective identity, and a self-deprecating view that starkly contrasts with the positive self-image and objectives typical of most social movements. This discrepancy raises questions about what motivates members to continually engage with the community. This study conducts online observations and discourse analys…

  • The aesthetics of climate misinformation: Computational multimodal framing analysis with Bertopic and CLIP

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Petter Törnberg•ARTICLE•Environmental Politics•2025•References: 53

    Climate misinformation today is increasingly conveyed through multimodal content, where images and text interact to shape meaning, emotional resonance, and enhance credibility. Yet, research on climate misinformation has rarely explored how these modes work in tandem. This paper introduces a multimodal analytical framework to examine climate-related visual misinformation. Analyzing 17,848 image-text posts, we combine BERTopic, CLIP, and qualitati…

  • Asymmetric Alliances in Climate Misinformation: A Network Analysis of the Swedish Climate Change Countermovement

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Victoria Vallström•ARTICLE•Socius Sociological Research for…•2025•Cited by: 3•References: 50

    Climate change countermovements (CCCMs) play a central role in spreading misinformation and delaying policy action. Although most research has focused on the United States, less is known about CCCM networks in other national contexts. The authors analyze the Swedish online CCCM using social network analysis to (1) examine its structure and composition; (2) assess potential hierarchical influences, including how narratives flow from global think t…

  • Evolving Scripts of Nativist Violence? A Latent Class Analysis of Violent Crime Against Migrants in Sweden, 2009–2022

    Open Access•Måns Lundstedt, A Tornberg•ARTICLE•Deviant Behavior•2026

    This article examines the structure and evolution of violent nativist crime in Sweden between 2009 and 2022. Drawing on a novel dataset of 2,522 incidents generated from the full register of police reports of violent criminal offenses with suspected hate motives, the study conceptualizes such violence as composed of recurring “violent scripts” – configurations of actors, settings, means, and actions. Using latent class analysis (LCA), the study i…

  • Xenophobic violence in Sweden 2009–2022: Introducing the dataset

    Open Access•A Tornberg, Måns Lundstedt et al.•ARTICLE•Research & Politics•2026

    We present a new event dataset on xenophobic violence in Sweden, covering all police-reported, hate-crime-flagged incidents involving physical violence between 2009 and 2022 (n = 2,522). The dataset provides a nationally complete and georeferenced record of violent xenophobic offences, combining programmatic extraction of structured police records with manual coding of free-text narratives under transparent inclusion criteria. It includes detaile…

Sociology (20 works) · Political science (17 works) · Politics (16 works) · Law (13 works) · Law (10 works) · Social Media and Politics (10 works) · Media studies (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Epistemology (8 works) · Psychology (6 works)

Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae