Countering violent extremism, governmentality and Australian Muslim youth as ‘becoming terrorist’

This article explores how a ‘regime of truth’ about Muslim youth has been historically produced through the underlying logic of Australia’s counter-terrorism and countering violent extremism (CVE) policies and practices. The article is divided into three parts. I first look at how the pre-emptive logic of countering the ‘becoming terrorist’ constitutes young Australian Muslims. I then interrogate the way CVE has constituted Australian Muslims as a self-contained space, a governmental population divided between ‘moderates’ and ‘extremists’. Lastly, I discuss how CVE operates as a technique of governmentality in the way that it deploys grants programs to foster the ‘conduct of conduct’ of Muslim subjects within this self-contained racialised space. I argue that the central organising logic of community partnership has been the targeting of the conditions of emergence of ‘extremist’ Muslim subjects, thereby guaranteeing the racialisation of Muslim youth as always at-risk, marked with the ‘potential’ of ‘becoming terrorist’.

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al-Shabaab and Boko Haram: Recruitment Strategies

Peace and Conflict Studies ◽

10.46743/1082-7307/2020.1460 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

J. Omenma ◽

Cheryl Hendricks ◽

Nnamdi Ajaebili

Keyword(s):

Recruitment Strategies ◽

Boko Haram ◽

Counter Terrorism ◽

Funding Sources ◽

Recruitment Practices ◽

Violent Extremism ◽

Main Driver ◽

Extremist Groups ◽

Context Specific ◽

Policies And Practices

This paper is an examination of the membership recruitment strategies of two violent extremist organizations (VEOs), namely al-Shabaab and Boko Haram. The majority of the literature on VEOs concentrates on the conceptualization of terrorism, motivations for terrorism and counter-terrorism strategies, as well as a focus on the frequency of VEO attacks, number of fatalities and funding sources. The literature tends to portray poverty as the main driver of recruitment. The focus on recruitment strategies has been relatively recent. There is therefore still a lack of in-depth analyses on the processes of recruitment of specific extremist groups, and this impacts on the development of effective counter-insurgency policies and practices. We conclude that there is a need for more nuanced studies of recruitment practices, including radicalization strategies, of specific VEOs in Africa. This understanding of recruitment practices, particularly by VEOs such as Boko Haram and al-Shabaab, will enable more context specific counter-insurgency programmes that target the ability of these organizations to recruit and expand. There can be no one-size-fits-all approach to dealing with the challenge of violent extremism in Africa.

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Invisible students: institutional invisibility and access to education for undocumented children

International Journal of Migration Health and Social Care ◽

10.1108/ijmhsc-01-2014-0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 15-25 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Francesca Meloni ◽

Cécile Rousseau ◽

Alexandra Ricard-Guay ◽

Jill Hanley

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

Collaborative Research ◽

Design Methodology ◽

Analytical Framework ◽

Community Partnership ◽

Access To Education ◽

Content Type ◽

Community Stakeholders ◽

Policies And Practices

Purpose In Canada, undocumented children are “institutionally invisible” – their access to education to be found in unwritten and discretionary practices. Drawing on the experience of a three-year university-community partnership among researchers, institutional and community stakeholders, the purpose of this paper is to examine how undocumented children are constructed as excluded from school. Design/methodology/approach The establishment of this collaborative research space, helped to critically understand how this exclusion was maintained, and highlighted contradictory interpretations of policies and practices. Findings Proposing the analytical framework of “institutional invisibility”, the authors argue that issues of access and entitlement for undocumented children have to be often understood within unwritten and ambiguous policies and practices that make the lives of young people invisible to the institutional entities with which they interact. Originality/value The notion of institutional invisibility allows the authors to integrate the missing link between questions of access and deservingness. The paper also reflects on the role of action research in both documenting dynamics and pathways of institutional invisibility, as well as in initiating social change – as both horizontal, and vertical mobilisation.

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An analysis of the factors that pave the way for the radicalization of British Muslim youth from a comparative perspective

Muslim Youth : Challenges, Opportunities and Expectations ◽

10.5040/9781472548658.ch-003 ◽

2014 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Keyword(s):

Comparative Perspective ◽

Muslim Youth ◽

The Way

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From “Cyberterrorism” to “Online Radicalism”

Exchanging Terrorism Oxygen for Media Airwaves - Advances in Human and Social Aspects of Technology ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-5776-2.ch014 ◽

2014 ◽

pp. 198-217

Author(s):

Maura Conway

Keyword(s):

Web 2.0 ◽

Social Networking ◽

Digital Video ◽

User Generated Content ◽

The Internet ◽

Counter Terrorism ◽

The Past ◽

Violent Extremism

This chapter explores the changes that have taken place in the role and functioning of the Internet in terrorism and counter-terrorism in the past decade. It traces the shift in focus from a preoccupation with the threat of so-called “cyberterrorism” in the period pre- and immediately post-9/11 to the contemporary emphasis on the role of the Internet in processes of violent radicalization. The cyberterrorism threat is explained as over-hyped herein, and the contemporary focus, by researchers and policymakers, on the potential of the Internet as a vehicle for violent radicalization viewed as more appropriate albeit not without its difficulties. This change in emphasis is at least partially predicated, it is argued, on the significant changes that occurred in the nature and functioning of the Internet in the last decade: the advent of Web 2.0, with its emphasis on social networking, user generated content, and digital video is treated as particularly salient in this regard. Description and analysis of both “negative” and “positive” Internet-based Counter Violent Extremism (CVE) and online counterterrorism measures and their evolutions are also supplied.

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Exploitation of Health on Instagram

Privacy Concerns Surrounding Personal Information Sharing on Health and Fitness Mobile Apps - Advances in Information Security, Privacy, and Ethics ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-3487-8.ch007 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 164-185

Author(s):

Michael G Blight

Keyword(s):

Social Support ◽

At Risk ◽

Community Based ◽

Data Points ◽

The Way

This chapter focuses on the exploitative nature of Instagram as a community-based platform. Individual users build, maintain, and participate in communities as a way to connect with experiences and insights that resonate with them. Because users are motivated by different gratifications and are met with social support along the way, brands can use influencers to exploit the community-based practices (i.e., liking, sharing, and curating content) to access a variety of data points from users. Ultimately, users' data is routinely at risk as a byproduct of this subversive use of the platform.

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Countering Violent Extremism in Sub-Saharan Africa: What Policy Makers Need to Know

World Affairs ◽

10.1177/0043820019862270 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 182 (3) ◽

pp. 256-272 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Robin A. Hardy

Keyword(s):

Financial Support ◽

Muslim World ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Risk Assessments ◽

Boko Haram ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Counter Terrorism ◽

Violent Extremism ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Over Time

This essay addresses recurring and growing inaccurate reports from political officials as well as counter-terrorism analysts and journalists that the Sahara-Sahel group Boko Haram is a defeated entity. Notwithstanding concerted efforts to rout the movement, Boko Haram and its network of jihadists have expanded. Crucial misunderstandings surrounding what fostered and sustains the phenomenon—as well as a general naivety regarding the organization’s flexibility to adapt to attract combatants, financial support, and weaponry beyond Nigeria’s borders—have made performing basic adequate risk assessments overwhelmingly challenging. Policy makers and CVE (Countering Violent Extremism) practitioners would be wise to recognize that not only has Boko Haram morphed but its growing affiliates also terrorize increased territory. The threat of militant Islam in the Sahara-Sahel, therefore, has not been contained as some would have us believe. Rather, Muslim extremism has become entangled and more complex not only in Africa but across the Muslim world. When jihadists in one territory have taken a beating, surviving fighters have simply relocated to other geographies accompanied by connections for capital and munitions. In this way, Boko Haram—the fulcrum of violent Islam in the Sahara-Sahel—has become, over time, an international jihadist actor.

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High-Tech Workers, Management Strategy, and Globalization

Management Practices in High-Tech Environments ◽

10.4018/978-1-59904-564-1.ch003 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 42-57

Author(s):

Jasmine Folz

Keyword(s):

At Risk ◽

Management Strategy ◽

Qualitative Interviews ◽

High Tech ◽

Foreign Workers ◽

Contingent Employment ◽

Cost Cutting ◽

Management Policies ◽

The Impact ◽

Policies And Practices

Based on qualitative interviews with Seattle area high-tech workers, this chapter explores their positioning within and reaction to globalization processes. Looking especially as cost-cutting labor strategies of contingent employment, importation of foreign workers, and the outsourcing of professional high-tech work, it is argued that these are essentially restrictive employment strategies that benefit employers at the expense of employees. While some of the interviewees more or less approved of these practices as logical from the corporate perspective, and were confident that their jobs were too complex to be at risk, most are questioning these processes and some were actively trying to organize in an effort to halt or at least slow down such trends. How and why high-tech workers accommodate or resist management policies and practices they disagree with is analyzed with attention to the impact of ideology.

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Introducing the case

Countering Extremism in British Schools? ◽

10.1332/policypress/9781447344131.003.0007 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

John Holmwood ◽

Therese O’Toole

Keyword(s):

Local Authority ◽

Moral Panic ◽

Trojan Horse ◽

City Council ◽

Media Report ◽

Metropolitan Police ◽

Counter Terrorism ◽

Secretary Of State ◽

Violent Extremism ◽

Successful School

This chapter focuses on the Trojan Horse affair. The puzzle in the Trojan Horse affair is to understand how a successful school could become the centre of a moral panic. Events unfolded quickly from the first media report in the Times on 2 March 2014, followed by Ofsted inspections of 21 schools ordered by the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove. On the basis of interim Ofsted reports, Peter Clarke was appointed by the Secretary of State in mid-April to provide a wider report. This appointment was controversial insofar as it placed matters directly in a context of violent extremism, since Peter Clarke was formerly in charge of Counter Terrorism Command within the Metropolitan Police in London. At around the same time, Ian Kershaw was appointed by Birmingham City Council to report on implications for the local authority.

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