Abstract
In their opening chapter, the authors survey contemporary secondary literature, which enables the authors to highlight conceptual ambiguities of the term ‘radicalization’, extract the main trends in research and the public discourse, and contrast them to each other, identifying gaps and proposing ways forward. One of their main arguments is that radicalization denotes a relative relationship to a reference point and that issues of observation and measurement need to be addressed in order to understand radicalization with a higher level of precision. Moving away from purely unidirectional and linear modes of explanation and combining a number of approaches, the authors propose a holistic model combining cognitive and behavioural processes and their interplay with a macro-level (of ideas), a meso-level (of support communities or adversaries), and a micro-level (of individual action).
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Notes
- 1.
During the spring and summer of 2016, Swedish media were entrenched in a polarized debate over the interpretation of terms like extremism, terrorism , political violence, and radicalization. In 2015, the Swedish government inaugurated a national resource centre against ideologically motivated violent milieus. This centre, the Segerstedt Institute (SI) at the University of Gothenburg, since released a series of reports that were at the core of the debate (http://segerstedtinstitutet.gu.se [accessed 3 June 2016]). Conservative newspapers and ‘terrorism experts’ dismissed the SI reports as relativizing violence and Jihadism. The debate culminated at the end of May 2016 with Magnus Ranstorp and Peder Hyllengren’s opinion piece, ‘Major flaws in the report on the work against extremism (Stora brister i rapport om arbete mot terrorism)’, published 25 May 2016 (http://www.svt.se/opinion/stora-brister-i-rapport-om-arbetet-mot-extrimism [accessed 3 June 2016]), followed by the SI’s response written by Christer Mattsson, Thomas Johansson, and Clara Lebedinski Arfvidson, ‘The terrorist scientists simplify the image of the work against extremism (Terrorforskarna förenklar bilden av arbetet mot extremismen)’, published 27 May 2016 (http://www.svt.se/opinion/segerstedtinstitutet-om-kritiken [accessed 3 June 2016]), to which Ranstorp and Hyllengren, replied on 30 May 2016 in ‘The Segerstedt Institute does not seem to have read its own report (Segerstedtinstitutet verkar inte ha läst sin egen rapport’ (http://www.svt.se/opinion/ranstorp-och-hyllengren-om-extremism [accessed 3 June 2016]). Linda Nordlund represented the positions expressed in Swedish conservative newspapers in her article, ‘Indulgent, fuzzy, pious hope (Flathet, flum och from förhoppning)’ published 23 May 2016 (http://www.svd.se/flathet-flum-och-from-forhoppning [accessed 3 June 2016]) and Per Björklund presented a more nuanced analysis of the media coverage in ‘The right’s incomprehensible fear of subtlety (Högerns obegripliga rädsla för nyanser)’, published 31 May 2016 (http://www.fria.nu/artikel/123292 [accessed 3 June 2016]). We presented the results of preliminary research into both the hearing at the Swedish parliament and the Swedish media debate at the EuPRA/AFK-conference in Villigst/Germany in March 2017 on a panel devoted to radicalization. We are extremely grateful for lively discussions and input from co-panellist Timothy Williams, who pointed us towards including an ‘attitudinal’ factor as another way of understanding radicalization that has not (yet) materialized into action.
- 2.
See, for example, Christer Mattsson, Nils Hammarén, and Ylva Odenbring, ‘Youth “at risk”: A critical discourse analysis of the European Commission ’s Radicalisation Awareness Network Collection of approaches and practices used in education’, Power and Education 2016, 8(3), 251–265. The article explores how the ‘war on terror’ has led to securitization in educational approaches, where tensions in society that may ultimately cause terrorism are individualized and decontextualized.
- 3.
See, for example, C. Goerzig and K. Al-Hashimi, Radicalization in Western Europe. Integration, public discourse, and loss of identity among Muslim communities (Oxon: Routledge), 2015: 1–33; P. McLaughlin, P. (2012) Radicalism. A philosophical study (London: Palgrave Macmillan), 1–39; R. Borum, ‘Radicalization into violent extremism I: A review of social science theories’, Journal of Strategic Security 2011;4(4): 7–36 and ‘Radicalization into violent extremism II: A review of conceptual models and empirical research’ in the same journal on 37–62; and the comprehensive bibliography in A.P. Schmid ‘Radicalisation, de-radicalisation, counter-radicalisation: A conceptual discussion and literature review’, ICCT Research Paper, 2013: 61–91.
- 4.
In Sweden , the Metro newspaper has started an entire section called Viralgranskaren (Viral Checkup) to explore rumours spread via the Internet in social and traditional media (available at. http://www.metro.se/nyheter/viralgranskaren [accessed 26 June 2016]). The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) has also made efforts to raise the profile in the field of reality checks on disinformation spread on the Internet , likely a pro-active PSYOP government effort to combat the spread of information that could incite the adoption of radical positions (available at https://www.msb.se/sv/Insats--beredskap/Psykologiskt-forsvar/Vad-ska-man-tanka-pa-nar-det-galler-kallkritik-och-att-motverka-rykten/ [accessed 26 June 2016]). Right-wing activists also link reports from the Iraqi and Syrian conflicts to issues of domestic politics.
- 5.
Of course, it would be possible to look closer at the violent oppressive politics of states like Great Britain during the Troubles, Western German, or Italian responses to left-wing terrorism, but in a legal sense these actions did not constitute war crimes.
- 6.
See ‘UR samtiden—ideologisk radikalisering’ (available at http://urskola.se/Produkter/194619-UR-Samtiden-Ideologisk-radikalisering/Om-serien [accessed 27 June 2016].
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Önnerfors, A., Steiner, K. (2018). Introduction. In: Steiner, K., Önnerfors, A. (eds) Expressions of Radicalization. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65566-6_1
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