Terrorists, scholars and ordinary people: confronting terrorism studies with field experiences

Toros, Harmonie

doi:10.1080/17539150802184652

Cited by 22 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…While our study is responsive to the call for the use of primary data in research into extremist groups (e.g. Schuurman and Eijkman 2013), the need for ethnographic fieldwork with an emic perspective remains acute (see Toros 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extreme parallels: a corpus-driven analysis of ISIS and far-right discourse

Buckingham

Alali

2019

Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online

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In this study, we examine key psychological dimensions in the manifestos authored by the perpetrators of the Christchurch and Utøya massacres, the right-wing extremists Brenton Tarrant and Anders Breivik, and the ISIS propaganda magazine Rumiyah. All texts were authored and disseminated virtually with the purpose of attracting or consolidating support, and justifying violent, discriminatory actions. While right-wing supremacist and extremist Islamist discourses are ostensibly ideologically opposed, previous research has posited the existence of ideational and emotive commonalities. We approach this from a corpus-linguistic perspective, and employ the software LIWC2015 and Wmatrix to explore the dominant psychological dimensions, semantic categories and keywords in these texts. We identify elements that contribute to the construction of a narrative of hate, peril and urgency, and discuss differences in the imagery used to construct these meanings and to appeal to different audiences. Whilst our analysis supports the existence of commonalities in ideological content and discursive strategies, our results identify differences in the target of hate in right-wing supremacist discourse and we differentiate between primarily Islamophobic and racist motives. Finally, we also discuss the limitations inherent in employing these software tools to analyse discourse in the Web 2.0 era.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extreme parallels: a corpus-driven analysis of ISIS and far-right discourse

Buckingham

Alali

2019

Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online

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“…As a result, not only understanding of the factors inhibiting contribution by these states is continually masked, but a more inclusive and collaborative development of terrorism knowledge is undermined. In particular, this marginalisation of the perspectives of victim societies deprives terrorism research of access to crucially important primary sources, and thus reinforces the Western researchers' customary overreliance on secondary sources of information, and their tendency to employ a limited number of methodologies for gathering data (Schuurman and Eijkman 2013;Symth 2009, 195;Ranstorp 2009, 17;Jackson 2009, 219;Silke 2004Silke , 2007Silke , 2008Toros 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

The discourse and study of terrorism in decolonised states: the case of Pakistan

Feyyaz

2016

Critical Studies on Terrorism

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The existing literature in the terrorism field does not address the absence of terrorism scholarship in developing countries. This article focuses on this intellectual gap using the case of Pakistan. It argues that most decolonised states, including Pakistan, are yet to grasp the complexities of traditional approaches to the study of terrorism, let alone its critical dimensions. The article explores some of the prevailing conditions in developing countries, specifically decolonised states such as Pakistan, which prevent the development of a robust academic discourse on terrorism and the development of a strong field of study. It suggests that the main barriers that account for this shortfall include the state's legitimacy deficit, a flawed education system that nurtures fictions as truth and inhibits knowledge production, the institutionalised role of conspiracy theories in national politics and the multiplicity of terrorism discourses among government and sociopolitical entities. The conclusion highlights a number of reasons that might help to explain this persistent condition and offers a few policy recommendations. ARTICLE HISTORY

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“…The relatively small number of scholars currently involved in CTS make such apparent distortions likely for the near future. At another level, it must be emphasised that, far from being disengaged from the 'real world', and lost in discursive critiques, the substantial work of most self-identifying CTS scholars involves empirically grounded 'real world' studies of political violence which adopts historical materialist, ethnographic, and conflict resolution-based approaches, among others (Gunning 2007c, Blakeley 2006, forthcoming, Raphael 2007, Toros 2008.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%