Terrorism And The Politics Of Social Change

Terrorism and political violence have invariably accompanied the progressive modernization of states; a socio-cultural reaction to the problems of social change and development. To understand this phenomenon, it is necessary to consider the nature of traditional society and how it differs from modernity. Starting with a basic history of modern terrorism, James Dingley uses a Durkheimian sociological framework to dissect the role of social relations, culture and religion in impelling men and women to defend their socio-cultural context with violence against the challenge of external forces. Placing emphasis on a historical and social understanding of violence and key issues such as nationalism, religion, science, the Enlightenment and Romanticism for understanding terrorism in all its forms, this book allows for a more critical examination of terrorism as a response to changes in the organization and cultural goals in a society. It is a decisive contribution to our understanding of the political and social relevance of terrorism as we know and experience it today.

Charles Tilly is among the most influential American sociologists of the last century. For the first time, his pathbreaking work on a wide array of topics is available in one comprehensive reader. This manageable and readable volume brings together many highlights of Tilly’s large and important oeuvre, covering his contribution to the following areas: revolutions and social change; war, state making, and organized crime; democratization; durable inequality; political violence; migration, race, and ethnicity; narratives and explanations. The book connects Tilly’s work on large-scale social processes such as nation-building and war to his work on micro processes such as racial and gender discrimination. It includes selections from some of Tilly’s earliest, influential, and out of print writings, including The Vendée; Coercion, Capital and European States; the classic "War Making and State Making as Organized Crime;" and his more recent and lesser-known work, including that on durable inequality, democracy, poverty, economic development, and migration. Together, the collection reveals Tilly’s complex, compelling, and distinctive vision and helps place the contentious politics approach Tilly pioneered with Sidney Tarrow and Doug McAdam into broader context. The editors abridge key texts and, in their introductory essay, situate them within Tilly’s larger opus and contemporary intellectual debates. The chapters serve as guideposts for those who wish to study his work in greater depth or use his methodology to examine the pressing issues of our time. Read together, they provide a road map of Tilly’s work and his contribution to the fields of sociology, political science, history, and international studies. This book belongs in the classroom and in the library of social scientists, political analysts, cultural critics, and activists.

Narrative, Political Violence and Social Change is a call for engaging actively and critically with the ontological, epistemological, and methodological implications of narrative in the study of political violence and terrorism. Building on a basic framework of three modes of narrative – as lens, as data, and as tool – the chapters in this book demonstrate how the study of political violence and terrorism benefits from narrative inquiry as an interdisciplinary endeavour, in particular as regards diverging perceptions of social reality, the meanings of belonging, and the human drive for change. They showcase the substantial advances that scholars have made in this field to date and identify promising avenues for further research. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Studies in Conflict & Terrorism.

This thoughtful text demonstrates how the mass media constructs a politics of fear in the United States. Using a social interactionist perspective, the chapters examines such issues as the expansion of surveillance on the Internet, the construction of a terrorism-fighting hero to promote patriotism, the use of social media by terror groups, the fear of the other fostered by the refugee crisis and western radicalization, as well as the mass-mediated reaction to recent terrorist attacks. Also covered are the politics of fear involving disease (Ebola, Zika), social control efforts, and harsh attacks on American governmental officials for not keeping people safe from harm. All chapters in this new edition have been updated with descriptions and relevant analysis of significant events, including two Israeli-Hamas wars, terrorism attacks (e.g., Boston Marathon, Charlie Hebdo, San Bernadino, etc.), global reactions—often hostility—to refugees in the United States and especially Europe, the development of ISIS, surveillance (Wiki Leaks, Snowden, NSA), and the growing significance of social media. The text explains how the social construction of fear is used to steer public and foreign policy, arguing that security policies to protect the citizenry from violence have become control systems that most often curtail privacy and civil liberties.

In an era when rapid social change, the disappearance of traditional communities, the rise of political populism and the threat posed by radical religious movements makes it appear that ‘all that is solid melts into air’, the classical sociological problem of how peaceable societies can be created and maintained assumes renewed urgency. Uncovering Social Life: Critical Perspectives from Sociology explores how contemporary institutional changes erode existing social relationships and identities but also create space for opposition to, or creative adaptation of, these broader shifts. Exploring the threats and opportunities associated with the contemporary age, this book identifies how sociology helps us understand the problems associated with social order and change before focusing on the most important institutional transformations to have occurred in: bodies and health; sex, gender and sexuality; employment; finance; the Internet and new social media; technology and artificial intelligence; religion; governance and terrorism. After a critical introduction placing these issues in their historical and sociological context, theoretical chapters analysing how sociology views the individual/society relationship, and the volatile processes endemic to the modern era, provide an innovative and comprehensive context for these explorations. This book provides a clear and engaging account of social life. Covering a broad range of sociological topics, the diverse chapters are united in a concern with three major themes: the growing complexity of the current era, and the ‘doubled’ identities with which it is associated; the opportunities and constraints such developments pose to different groups; and the capacity of institutional changes to both erode existing social relationships, and create space for the emergence of new collective identities that oppose these structural shifts.

This book presents empirical research on the nature and structure of political violence. While most studies of social movements focus on single-nation studies, Donatella della Porta uses a comparative research design to analyze movements in two countries--Italy and Germany--from the 1960s to the 1990s. Through extensive use of official documents and in-depth interviews, della Porta is able to explain the actors' construction of external political reality, and to build a theory on political violence that synthesizes the various interactions among political actors.

The term ‘radicalization’ immediately evokes images of extremism, Muslim fundamentalism, and violence. The phenomenon is considered one of the evil forces triggering acts of terrorism and confl icts around the world. These notions also colour the way we view Sub-Saharan Africa since the Boko Haram uprising in Nigeria in 2009 and the spillover consequences of the Libyan civil war in 2012. This book aims to broaden our understanding of radicalization. It searches for the deeper wellsprings of radicalization as a force not only negative in outcome, but also pregnant with opportunities and vital to social and political change. The book argues that radical ideas and persons appear primarily with a call for change. Certainly, these cries can turn extremely violent and lead to open confl ict, but could this violence have been avoided if the radicalization and people involved had initially been interpreted differently? Following an opening refl ection by a slam artist on the phenomenon of radicalization, the book presents four case studies from the past and six from the present day. The studies are drawn mainly from Sub-Saharan Africa, with one from the Netherlands. By focusing on ‘biographies of radicalization’ the book investigates the history of the phenomenon, the forms it takes, and the pathways that lead a person to become radicalized. Rather than focus on chronological accounts of events, the emphasis is on exploring personal trajectories and inside stories. What can we learn from these individual itineraries and forms of radicalization? Were violent outcomes inevitable, and how might the calls for change have been turned in a different direction? The last three chapters examine pathways out of radicalization, ending with a report on youth in Dakar who directly engage with problematic issues in society and creatively harness the energy for change without becoming violent radicals.