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2023 | Buch

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Radicalization and Variations of Violence

New Theoretical Approaches and Original Case Studies

herausgegeben von: Daniel Beck, Julia Renner-Mugono

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buchreihe : Contributions to International Relations

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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This book focusses on the interaction between different kinds of violence and radicalization. Current research criticizes linear models of radicalization and assumes that individuals are involved in radical actions even without extremist preferences. In recent years, the research on radicalization and the use of violence has increasingly been focused on this phenomenon of individual radicalization. However, radicalization is a manifold phenomenon on various levels and exists in miscellaneous variations.

The book provides an impetus for analysing social situations that contain the potential for the emergence of conflict. This is done through new outlooks on the role of emotions, the influence of narratives and representations, the connection between (non)violence and emancipation and, lastly, new approaches and perspectives on deradicalization.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Introduction

Abstract

This introduction is about different kinds of violence and radicalization. Current research criticizes linear models of radicalization and assumes that individuals are involved in radical actions even without extremist preferences. In recent years, the research on radicalization and the use of violence has increasingly been focused on this phenomenon of individual radicalization. However, radicalization is a manifold phenomenon on various levels and exists in miscellaneous variations, as the edited volume shows. After an introduction of key concepts and debates, an outline of the book is provided.

Daniel Beck, Julia Renner-Mugono

Causes and the Constitution of Radicalization

Frontmatter

Organising Political Violence: Radicalisation and Militancy as Narrative Activity

Abstract

This chapter offers a theoretical exploration of the relationship between organised political violence and, particularly, emotional narratives. The author interrogates conventional approaches to radicalisation and questions assumptions about emotional dynamics in and narratives’ relevance to radicalisation processes. Taking a literary-critical approach to the discourses at play in organised political violence, the author then conceptualises what political narratives do, how emotions are mediated in and through such narratives and which narrative genre militant organisations draw upon. The chapter introduces the central concept of narrative emotionalisation to grasp the process by which a political narrative becomes strongly emotionalised, which, in turn, impacts the possibilities of interpretation by the audience and, ultimately, the range of desirable collective actions. The last section discusses the far-reaching effects of narrative emotionalisation when combined with the specific contextual-organisational dynamics at play in organised political violence. The author argues that organisations mobilising for political violence draw extensively on narrative emotionalisation, resulting in demands for a most conform performance of emotions from members, high commitment and decisive action.

Maéva Clément

Making Sense of Terrorism and Violence: A Case Study

Abstract

This chapter delves deeper into understanding and discussing two identified controversial mechanisms of radicalization, I did not know—I did not trust and the Normality of Violence, which were relatively weak in the literature but fundamental driving factors in the de-radicalization processes of 23 ex-combatants. These mechanisms were uncovered in the analyzed data collected in a case study conducted in Lebanon in 2017 and 2018. This study approached political de-radicalization from the conflict transformation lenses and included seven semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 7 ex-combatants and one set of focus group discussions with 20 ex-combatants from the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990). Moreover, the analysis of the two new controversial mechanisms of radicalization supports the opinion that suggests a lesser role of ideology in de-radicalization processes and political violence.

Ramzi Merhej, Ziad Fahed

Correlates for Foreign Fighters in Tunisia

Protest and Marginalization as Predictors for Foreign Fighter Mobilization?

Abstract

This paper analyzes the effect of marginalization in general, and protest in particular, on foreign fighter (FF) mobilization in Tunisia between 2011 and 2014. The Arab Uprisings and the subsequent democratic transition period were marked by a high number of protests, and at the same time, Tunisia was one of the main suppliers of FF for the civil war in Syria. Drawing on a unique data set, and focusing on the fighters’ origin, Sterman and Rosenberg (2018) conclude a positive association between protest and the mobilization of FF. In order to review their results, this paper utilized a negative binomial regression to assess FF mobilization on the delegation level in Tunisia. This paper cannot reinforce Sterman and Rosenberg’s claims because protest events, as well as marginalization indicators, failed to show the expected effects on FF mobilization. Instead, Ansar al-Sharia’s activities, and the migration rate of a delegation, proved to be potent predictors. Hence, this paper questions the role marginalization, and protest in particular, play in the mobilization on theoretical and empirical grounds. This paper advocates for a greater emphasis on opportunity structures and frames than on local marginalization and the analytical distinction between FF and transnational or national terrorism.

Julius Strunk

Approaches to Prognosis, De-radicalization and Prevention

Frontmatter

Radicalization and Public Discourse

Government Narratives in Reaction to Terrorist Attacks and Their Relevance in Addressing and Preventing Violent Extremism

Abstract

This chapter will examine narratives used by European governments in reaction to terrorist attacks and will analyze in which ways they might provide compatibility for narratives used by extremist organizations to radicalize members of their audience. The chapter will discuss how structures and configurations of narratives used by governments are prone to providing points radical narratives might connect to and build an argument upon. It will also analyze the potential these narratives already hold for reducing the amount of fertile ground public discourse provides for extremist narratives and the opportunities they provide in preventing violent extremism. The cases of France, Germany, and Great Britain will serve as examples. In conclusion, the chapter will raise awareness to the delicate deliberations necessary in public crisis communication after a terrorist attack. It will address the challenge to balance clear and reassuring communication versus oversimplified enemy constructions while considering the possible implications of crisis communication for radicalization and the prevention of violent extremism.

Mareike Tichatschke

The (Non-)escalation of Violence During the Third Act of the Yellow Vests Protests

A Critique of Interactionist Theories of Violence

Abstract

This contribution conducts a visual analysis of video footage capturing violent confrontations between protestors and the police during the third Act of the Yellow Vests demonstrations in Paris on December first, 2018. In doing so, it draws from interactionist theories of violence that emphasize the causal role of micro-dynamics and emotions in an immediate situation. However, the analysis demonstrates the shortcomings of such approaches. It shows that the video recordings of the Yellow Vests protests feature all situational conditions that would predict an excessive overuse of force, but that this escalation of violence does not materialize. The contribution argues that this limitation results from interactionist theories’ exclusive focus on micro-sociological situations that isolates these from broader structural and social conditions, thereby ignoring that individuals’ interpretations of an immediate situation are shaped by their personal and collective history. Consequently, it calls for an integration of micro-level and macro-level approaches and a concomitant methodical broadening that complements visual analysis of videos with a wider set of qualitative and quantitative data.

Oliver Unverdorben

Elicitive Peace Education in Polarizing Conflicts over Democracy

A Relational Perspective Complementing Prevention of Radicalization

Abstract

This article explores the potential of peace education to complement other approaches to the prevention of radicalization. Therefore, a relational framework of polarizing conflicts over democracy is introduced, conceptualizing dynamics of radicalization as pervading the whole society. This is illustrated by an exploratory analysis of conflicts at the Hambach Castle located in Rhineland-Palatine, Germany, where understandings of democracy are disputed. Using John Paul Lederach’s elicitive framework, which focuses on relationships, allows for reflection on different onto-epistemological perspectives of peace education’s heterogenous repertoire. Empirical findings from the case study of the New Hambach Festival can help to identify entry points for, but also complicity of, peace education within conflicts over democracy. Critical peace education and violence prevention approaches appear as currently dominating, while their danger to reproduce either structural violence or polarizing tendencies is shown. Consequently, as a balancing step, transformation can occur by unfolding competences on both cultural and (trans)personal conflict dimensions in order to address radicalization from a whole society perspective. In practice, this entails the inclusion of silenced voices, e.g. marginalized societal groups or unrecognized ways of embodied, unconscious, emotional, or spiritual knowledge.

Annalena Groppe

Selected Case Studies of Radicalization

Frontmatter

Representation of Kurdish Female Combatants in Western Cinema

A Frame Analysis of Fiction Films on Female Combatants

Abstract

Kurdish female combatants gained extraordinary attention from the Western media during the Syrian Civil War and ISIL attack on Kurdish cities. Several studies have analyzed the representation of Kurdish female combatants in the media during this time from the perspective of media frame analysis. This chapter benefits from the findings of these media frame analyses in order to further investigate fiction films made on Kurdish female combatants by Western directors. The movies Girls of the Sun (2018) and Sisters in Arms (2019) were chosen as case studies due to the larger audiences they have reached. The chapter argues that the frames used in depicting Kurdish female combatants in these two films are in line with the media frames introduced by Toivanen and Başer (2016). The frames found in these films are named as: depoliticization, personal-emotional motives, exceptionalism, and sexualization. The representation of female combatants in these films reinforces the general assumptions about female combats that they engage in political violence due to personal reasons rather than the ideological ones, that they are sentimental and take decisions sentimentally rather than rationally, and that the major reason behind women’s violence is their victimization during the war.

Nilgün Yelpaze

Manifestations of Violence in the Causality of a Radicalization Episode

A Case Study on the Margins of La Paz-Bolivia

Abstract

This article analyzes the manifestations of symbolic, structural, and epistemic violence in the causality of a radicalization episode. It will be argued that, despite the fact that a conflictive dynamic in the Bolivian context possesses democratic characteristics, the consummation in radicalization is contained by hierarchies and structures of power that allow its maturation and configuration; these structures give rise to the consummation of highly violent dynamics with human costs. Therefore, in the analysis of the episode through the stratified ontology formulated by critical realism, it is possible to identify elements that perpetuate and reproduce dynamics rooted in causality rather than in the radicalization episode.

María Fernanda Córdova Suxo

Radical Politics in Post-Conflict Settings

Abstract

This paper will explore ELAM’s radical far-right ideological agenda in contemporary post-conflict settings. Using Cyprus’ case, a country in conflict with Turkey, I will examine the emergence of ELAM (National Popular Front). ELAM is the first and largest radical far-right party in Cyprus after the island’s war and division in 1974. Therefore, its emergence carries historical, political, and social weight in a community that has suffered the consequences of radical politics for the last 47 years. ELAM’s presence is an integral discursive mechanism of the conflict’s changing politics and Europeanization of Cypriot society and state. It is the counter-discourse to a European Union state with open borders. Understanding of Cyprus through ELAM will then shed light on the emergence of radical right organisations in post-conflict settings in the scope of the recent emergence of far-right radicalism in Europe and beyond.

Stratis Andreas Efthymiou

Uncovering the Complexities of Radicalization and Violence: A Summary

Abstract

The conclusion summarizes the main ideas of the nine contributions in this edited volume. It deals the understanding of radicalization, the methods and the different levels of analysis. Furthermore, the contributions to key topics like discursive aspects, protest and prevention are brought together, before an outlook is provided.

Daniel Beck

Titel: Radicalization and Variations of Violence
herausgegeben von: Daniel Beck
Julia Renner-Mugono
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-031-27011-6
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-27010-9
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27011-6

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Über dieses Buch

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Introduction

Causes and the Constitution of Radicalization

Frontmatter

Organising Political Violence: Radicalisation and Militancy as Narrative Activity

Making Sense of Terrorism and Violence: A Case Study

Correlates for Foreign Fighters in Tunisia

Approaches to Prognosis, De-radicalization and Prevention

Frontmatter

Radicalization and Public Discourse

The (Non-)escalation of Violence During the Third Act of the Yellow Vests Protests

Elicitive Peace Education in Polarizing Conflicts over Democracy

Selected Case Studies of Radicalization

Frontmatter

Representation of Kurdish Female Combatants in Western Cinema

Manifestations of Violence in the Causality of a Radicalization Episode

Radical Politics in Post-Conflict Settings

Uncovering the Complexities of Radicalization and Violence: A Summary

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