Movement studies in the Federal Republic of Germany has its origins in the study of new social movements. This is one of the reasons why right-wing protest mobilizations remained unexplored for a long time from the perspective of German movement studies. This changed with the racist riots in the early 1990s, when a debate broke out about whether the (extreme) right should not also be understood as a movement. Since the beginning of the noughties, at the latest, there has been a consensus that this is the case. However, this has not led to the dissolution of the niche existence of movement studies with right-wing actors. In the wake of the right-wing protest cycle initiated by the Dresden Pegida demonstrations (since late 2014), this has changed. Since then, the focus has increasingly shifted to how right-wing movements can be appropriately researched methodologically. Thus, Pegida has revealed that the methodological tools of movement research quickly reach their limits when applied in the right-wing mobilization context, which ultimately includes research ethics issues.

The contributions collected here address this gap in research and the problematic situation: They illuminate how qualitative and quantitative methods can be used in concrete studies of the right-wing protest milieu and discuss both challenges and approaches to solutions.