The Paradox of Hope: A Psychodynamic Approach to Understanding the Motivations of Young People Engaged in Violent Extremism

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Martha Bragin
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Psychodynamic Approach ◽  
Violent Extremism

Radical reform and reforming radicals in Australian schooling

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eve Mayes
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Attorney General ◽  
Young Person ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Radical Reform ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Radical Education

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to consider historical shifts in the mobilisation of the concept of radical in relation to Australian schooling. Design/methodology/approach Two texts composed at two distinct points in a 40-year period in Australia relating to radicalism and education are strategically juxtaposed. These texts are: the first issue of the Radical Education Dossier (RED, 1976), and the Attorney General Department’s publication Preventing Violent Extremism and Radicalisation in Australia (PVERA, 2015). The analysis of the term radical in these texts is influenced by Raymond Williams’s examination of particular keywords in their historical and contemporary contexts. Findings Across these two texts, radical is deployed as adjective for a process of interrogating structured inequalities of the economy and employment, and as individualised noun attached to the “vulnerable” young person. Social implications Reading the first issue of RED alongside the PVERA text suggests the consequences of the reconstitution of the role of schools, teachers and the re-positioning of certain young people as “vulnerable”. The juxtaposition of these two texts surfaces contemporary patterns of the therapeutisation of political concerns. Originality/value A methodological contribution is offered to historical sociological analyses of shifts and continuities of the role of the school in relation to society.

Threatening criminals and marginalized individuals: Frames and news conventions in reporting of radicalization and violent extremism

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Grøndahl Larsen
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Judicial System ◽  
Human Interest ◽  
System A ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Politically Motivated Violence ◽  
Foreign Fighters ◽  
Depth Interviews

The phenomenon of so-called foreign fighters has in recent years attracted renewed public interest regarding why young people who have grown up in Western, democratic countries come to accept and engage in politically motivated violence, and these issues have received extensive news attention. Based on analysis of news texts published in four major Norwegian news outlets throughout 2014 and 2015, and supplemented with in-depth interviews with reporters, the present article investigates how radicalization and violent extremism are framed in the news, including how news conventions contribute to shape the ways in which these issues are defined in public debate. The analysis shows that authority definitions prevailed. ‘Radicalized’ individuals were predominantly presented as threats and criminals to be dealt with in the judicial system. A ‘marginalization approach’ was, however, also present in the reporting. This was partly due to reporters’ efforts to bring personalized human-interest stories, which, to some extent, served to broaden the overall range of depictions. Simultaneously, issues pertaining to radicalization were mainly discussed at micro- and mesolevels, and more abstract political or systemic explanations not actualized by specific events or easily concretized through foregrounding specific individuals were largely absent. The article contributes new insights into characteristics of public discourses of radicalization and violent extremism, and how these are constructed in the intersection between news conventions and (elite) sources.

scholarly journals Leadership and Peacebuilding: The Role of Young People in Countering Violent Extremism in North East Nigeria

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-72
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Mohammed Machina
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Small Minority ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Youth Population ◽  
Extremist Groups

The involvement of some young people as foot soldiers of extremist groups has led to the stereotype of youth in general as perpetrators of violence and a threat to peace and stability. That is why many commentaries and media reportage on Nigeria portray young people as perpetrators of violence or victims of conflict. However, this picture of young people is incomplete because it fails to acknowledge the role of young people as peacebuilders. This commentary examines the role of young people in countering violent extremism in North East Nigeria and focuses on the North East Intellectual Entrepreneurship Fellowship (NEIEF) Fellows as a case study. I argue that young people who actively joined extremist groups represent a small minority of the youth population. The majority of young people in North East Nigeria have been actively working to counter extremist narratives of violence.

scholarly journals Concept of and approaches toward a developmental prevention of radicalization: Promising strategies to keep young people away from political, religious, and other forms of extremism

2021 ◽  
Vol 104 (3) ◽  
pp. 298-309
Author(s):  
Andreas Beelmann
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Developmental Model ◽  
Effect Sizes ◽  
Developmental Perspective ◽  
Intergroup Attitudes ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Identity Problems

Abstract Radicalization and violent extremism in young people are growing problems in almost every society around the globe. This article starts by briefly summarizing the result of several comprehensive reviews on the prevention of radicalization and violent extremism. Based on a new social-developmental model of radicalization, it then introduces the concept of developmental prevention and presents a review of prevention principles, approaches, and programs derived from a developmental perspective within four different fields of proximal radicalization processes. These include (1) identity problems; (2) prejudice and negative intergroup attitudes; (3) extremist narratives, beliefs, and ideologies; and (4) antisocial development. Overall, several approaches and programs reveal promising effect sizes for a developmentally founded prevention of radicalization. However, more sound evaluations are needed to further promote this field.

The Radicalization of Abu Hamdie: Wider Lessons for the Ongoing Struggle Against Violent Extremism in Post-Marawi Mindanao

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kumar Ramakrishna
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Boarding School ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Abu Sayyaf Group ◽  
Abu Sayyaf

This essay examines the radicalization into violent extremism of a former Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) militant named Abu Hamdie. It first explores the violent Islamist ASG milieu within which he found himself embedded. Second, it examines how his experiences within a strategic node of the violent Islamist ecosystem in Marawi, the Darul Imam Shafii religious boarding school, facilitated his own radicalization. The essay finally suggests three broad lessons that may be learned from the specific Abu Hamdie radicalization experience for the ongoing struggle against violent extremism in post-Marawi Mindanao: first, the ideological ecosystem of Islamist extremism of which Darul Imam Shafii was an important node must be dismantled; second, the role of long-standing Bangsamoro socio-political and historical grievances must be urgently addressed by the Philippine authorities and third, the increasingly pervasive influence of puritanical Wahhabi ideas, that have rendered impressionable young people susceptible to violent extremist ideological narratives, needs countering.

scholarly journals ‘Idle minds’ and ‘empty stomachs’: youth, violence and religious diversity in coastal Kenya

Africa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (5) ◽  
pp. 890-913
Author(s):  
Erik Meinema
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Youth Violence ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Security Threat ◽  
Coastal Kenya ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Religious Coexistence ◽  
Donor Policies

AbstractThis article analyses how concerns about youth and violence intersect with the politics of managing religious coexistence in the coastal Kenyan town of Malindi. During extensive ethnographic research, I noticed that Muslim, Christian and ‘Traditionalist’ leaders, politicians and NGO officials often fear that the ‘idleness’ of young people leaves them susceptible to various immoralities, including political violence and ‘violent extremism’, that threaten peaceful ethnic and religious coexistence. The article explores how these concerns motivate leaders’ attempts to incorporate youth in development and peace projects, and how youth respond to these interventions. These projects are funded by Western donors, who often see ‘radical’ religiosity, especially among Muslim youth, as a security threat. Yet, leaders in Malindi accommodate donor policies to the (coastal) Kenyan context, and tend to understand immoralities and violence as resulting from a lack of religiosity among youth. The article argues that perceptions of ‘idle youth’ as potentially violent threats to peaceful religious coexistence and morality allow leaders to develop a ‘moral religiosity’ that is shared across religious divides. However, the ways in which youth strategically resist or comply with interventions to pacify them demonstrate that they do not necessarily agree with dominant moral and political constellations.

Prevent: from hearts and minds to muscular liberalism

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Holmwood ◽  
Therese O’Toole
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Young People ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
New Labour ◽  
Civic Capacity ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
British Muslims ◽  
Local Solutions ◽  
Hearts And Minds

This chapter examines the government's Prevent strategy for addressing extremism and radicalisation. The Prevent strategy that was launched by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) under the New Labour government in 2007 sets out a ‘hearts and minds’ approach to counterterrorism, in which engagement and partnership with British Muslims were seen as key to tackling violent extremism. It sets out four key objectives: ‘promoting shared values, supporting local solutions, building civic capacity and leadership and strengthening the role of faith institutions and leaders’. Accordingly, ‘Preventing Violent Extremism’ (PVE) or ‘Prevent’ initiatives focused on disaffected Muslim young people who were seen as particularly vulnerable to radicalisation, and mobilising Muslim women, whom government considered to be potential moderating forces on young Muslim men, as well as on modulating expressions and practices of Islam in Britain.

Feeling Terrified?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lise Waldek ◽  
Julian Droogan ◽  
Catharine Lumby
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Young People ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Behavioural Responses ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Qualitative Focus Groups ◽  
Online Environments

This Element presents original research into how young people interact with violent extremist material, including terrorist propaganda, when online. It explores a series of emotional and behavioural responses that challenge assumptions that terror or trauma are the primary emotional responses to these online environments. It situates young people's emotional responses within a social framework, revealing them to have a relatively sophisticated relationship with violent extremism on social media that challenges simplistic concerns about processes of radicalisation. The Element draws on four years of research, including quantitative surveys and qualitative focus groups with young people, and presents a unique perspective drawn from young people's experiences.

scholarly journals Radicalization and violent extremism as challenges to freedom of religion and belief (on the example of Tajikistan)

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (19) ◽  
pp. 31-40
Author(s):  
Muatar Khaidarova
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Violent Extremism

In Tajikistan, as well as throughout Central Asia, there is growing concern about the strengthening of radicalism and violent extremism on a religious basis, as well as problems associated with those who resort to such actions. There are also questions about how to prevent the growth of such destructive elements, such as preventing activities and funding of such groups and establishing international contacts, as well as preventing their influence on young people or manipulating young people through religion, as well as using (including criminal) purposes) structures of legitimate and illegitimate religious communities.

scholarly journals Role of Women in Preventing Radicalization and Violent Extremism that Leads to Terrorism in Albania

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 240
Author(s):  
Merita Poni ◽  
Evisa Kambellari ◽  
Merushe Zeneli ◽  
Rozana Baci
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Hot Spots ◽  
Youth Engagement ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Role Of Women ◽  
Women's Role ◽  
Depth Interviews

The aim of this paper is to inform the reader about the role of women in countering violent extremism and radicalization leading to terrorism (VERLT). Women’s role represents a growing interest for policy makers in addressing the rising concern for youth engagement in violent extremism. The study applies a gender perspective to analyzing the role of women in preventing and countering radicalization and violent extremism. In depth interviews were conducted with thirty-one women to reveal their opinions, attitudes and experiences with prevention of VERLT. The study covers three regions: Tirana, Elbasan and Pogradec, which are identified as hot spots for violent extremism. The study has found that women have a crucial role in preventing and countering violent extremism, given their access in family and community. Women’s role is especially relevant in keeping young people safe from extremists’ radicalization attempts. Women civic engagement increases community resilience against violent narratives and contributes to peace perseverance. Women front-line activism is primordial for countering extremism that leads to terrorism.   Received: 8 October 2020 / Accepted: 11 December 2020 / Published: 17 January 2021

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