SPEAKERS: ABSTRACTS AND BIOS "VORTEX – Varieties of Radicalization, Terrorism and Extremism"
ABSTRACTS AND BIOS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE IN PROGRAM
Title: An Antidote to Extremism: Intimism
Abstract: “Extremism” is a term and a concept that does not designate a precise, determined, and definitive location in the semiosphere (the abstract area in which a community produces, handles, and circulates meaning). As the etymology of the word itself suggests, its meaning is intrinsically topological and relational. Something can be extreme only by situating itself at the periphery of a spectrum, at the border of an area of potentialities. The term and the corresponding concept, moreover, signal that this spectrum, as well as this area, are not neutrally arranged but contain at least one dialectics and, as a consequence, one polarization. In other words, “extremism” implicitly refers to an axiology, which includes also the impossibility not to adopt a perspective on it, a point of view.
Thus, when something is qualified as an expression of “extremism”, such qualification inherently points out that: 1) this something, be it a statement or a behavior, is comparable and commensurable with other similar events in the semiosphere; 2) all these events can be arranged along a spectrum, in relation to the pertinence that determines their commensurability; 3) those who deem the statement or behavior as extreme consider that they are entitled to position themselves at the center of the spectrum, and simultaneously situate what they judge at one or the other extreme of it.
The lecture will semiotically investigate the meaning of “extremism” in present-day communication through asking a specific question: what is the opposite of “extremism”? Common sense would immediately suggest to answer “moderation”. Yet, a topological understanding of extremism, definining it in relation to the dynamics of meaning in the semiosphere, would indicate another reply: if “extreme” is that which is so external to common sense as to situate itself out of its range, the counterpart of extremism requires to rediscover the extraordinary value of commonality, exactly as the late 19th-century and early 20th-century French artistic movement called “intimism” would do. After all, one of the worst enemies of world peace is the reckless desire for exceptionality.
Bio: Prof. Dr. Dr. MPhil. Massimo Leone, 马西莫 里昂, Full Professor of Semiotics, Department of Philosophy and Educational Sciences, University of Turin, Italy; Part-Time Full Professor of Semiotics, Department of Chinese Literature and Language, University of Shanghai, China, Vice-Director for Research, Department of Philosophy and Educational Sciences University of Turin, Italy; Editor-in-Chief of Lexia (SCOPUS); Winner of a 2018 ERC Consolidator Grant.
Title: 40 years of Siege: the evolution and exportation of James Mason's ‘cookbook and guide’ to extremism
Abstract: In 1980, long-time American neo-Nazi James Mason assumed editorial control of the National Socialist Liberation Front’s magazine, ‘Siege,’ a position he would use to legitimise his beliefs and approach to extremism. While the magazine eventually folded, Mason’s ideas were given new life with the re-publication of its article in book format in the early 1990s. With an ideology rooted in racism and anti-Semitism, Siege has promoted extreme violence against institutions and individuals, pioneered the use of lone-wolf forms of terrorism, and proven to be a central text in contemporary far-right extremist canon. Originally a magazine for American readers, the advent of the Internet and social media has only further enshrined Siege’s place in far-right praxis, spreading its messages across the globe. Embraced and promoted by members of the Atomwaffen Division and various breakaway groups, in countries including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Ukraine, and Estonia, Siege has been linked to the radicalisation of many, including several who have subsequently engaged in race-based violence. This presentation will dissect the ideology of Siege, evaluating both its political ideations and its methods for radicalising readers. Moreover, it will chart Siege’s growing influence on contemporary extremist groups, and consider its role in the future of extremist recruiting and activities.
Bio: Bethan Johnson is a doctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge, where she is completing a thesis on violent nationalist extremism of the late twentieth century. She is also a Doctoral Fellow with the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right, specialising in neo-Nazism and the transnational dissemination of far-right ideologies. Her study of German neo-Nazi music festivals was awarded the 2019 Terrorism Research Award, and she has been interviewed by the BBC, ITV, and Haaretz. Her upcoming research will focus on analysing Siege and re-evaluating its place in the white power extremist canon.
Title: Populist and radical discourse: a semiotic approach
Abstract: Actual political struggle never follows a clear-cut a priori logic carved into a party programme. The strategy and identity of a political force is formed by these very rhetorical acts through which common goals and shifting circumstances are represented. Thus, populism or radicalism are not mere deception or demagoguery; populist/radicalist politics enables the self-determination and mobilization of social actors of very different kinds (parties, civic movements, online communities, etc.). Neither this nor that movement or ideology can be said to be populist and radical. What is populist and radical is the form of organization of a specific movement or ideology – a political–rhetorical strategy, not political content. Rhetoric makes it possible to constitute subjects whose identity encompasses multiple social sectors. Representing different and distinct demands as those of a “single unified nation” dissolves the distinct features of these different demands.
In my presentation I try to sketch very shortly the relationship between the theory of hegemony as elaborated by Ernesto Laclau and the semiotics of culture of Yuri Lotman and possibilities to use rhetoric to describe above mentioned tendencies of populist and radical discourse.
Bio: Andreas Ventsel is a senior researche of semiotics, in Tartu University, Department of Semiotics. His research is interdisciplinary which include semiotics, discourse theory, visual and strategic communication, rhetoric and political analysis with particular focus on the post-structural political thought (Laclau, Derrida etc).
In my presentation I try to sketch very shortly the relationship between the theory of hegemony as elaborated by Ernesto Laclau and the semiotics of culture of Yuri Lotman and possibilities to use rhetoric to describe above mentioned tendencies of populist and radical discourse.
Bio: Andreas Ventsel is a senior researche of semiotics, in Tartu University, Department of Semiotics. His research is interdisciplinary which include semiotics, discourse theory, visual and strategic communication, rhetoric and political analysis with particular focus on the post-structural political thought (Laclau, Derrida etc).
Michaela Köttig: https://www.frankfurt-university.de/de/hochschule/fachbereich-4-soziale-arbeit-gesundheit/kontakt/professor-innen/michaela-kottig/
Title: Examining radicalisation prevention – on the suitability of concepts in Social Work
Abstract: The aim of my presentation is to elaborate three key positions for dealing with the topic of radicalisation in Social Work profession. These positions are: Social work and security policy are two fields that are each essential to society, but mutually exclusive both in their objectives and methods. Radicalisation must be viewed as a process that is always unique in character. In Social Work, model-based diagnostics will not lead to a satisfactory case assessment. Radicalisation processes has to be analysed within its historical and national context, if effective counteracting interventions are to be developed.
Bio: Dr. Michaela Köttig is professor of communication, communication techniques, and conflict management and in charge of the competence center of social intervention research at the University of Applied Sciences Frankfurt, Germany. Her research concerns female right-wing extremism, (forced) migration and radicalization (right wing and Muslim religious) in Germany. Since 2014 she is president of the Scientific Association of Social Work in Germany (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziale Arbeit).
Title: Madness or Mission? Left and Right Extremism and Conspiracy belief
Abstract: Even though the political ideologies on the far left and right are substantially different in terms of content, both extreme ideologies are grounded in a similar underlying psychology (Greenberg & Jonas, 2003; Van Prooijen and Krouwel 2019). Ideological rigidity is useful in explaining blind adherence to political ideologies that can have anti-democratic or even destructive consequences.Historically, disasters caused by political extremism tend to be preceded by widespread distrust and paranoia towards groups of different-minded individuals within society, often reflected in the shape of conspiracy beliefs. In contemporary democratic societies, people with (relatively) extreme political beliefs tend to be less trustful of governmental institutions than people with moderate political beliefs. Intuitively, there may be a structural tendency for people with relatively extreme political beliefs to endorse conspiracy theories. Next to these ideological differences, there is also a partisan pattern of conspiratorial belief, indicating that certain political ideologies fit much better with conspiratorial mindsets than other political ideological orientations. This study aims to empirically explore whether citizens with self-reported extreme left and extreme right ideology are more susceptible to conspiracy beliefs than political moderates, as well as (strong) support for certain political parties. The latter is assessed by testing whether (strong) party preferences correspond with increased or decreased likelihoods of conspiracy belief. Given that previous research has found that ideological extremism is conducive to conspiracy belief, we assume that (strong) support for radical parties, populist parties and protest parties will also be associated with conspiratorial thinking. To test these propositions, we use a large-N dataset (over 78k) collected in 13 European countries prior to the 2019 European Parliament elections.
Bio: André Krouwel teaches comparative political science and communication science at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and is the founder of Kieskompas (Election Compass) – a developer of online Vote Advice Applications in more than 40 countries, with which data is collected on party positions and voter opinions. André's research focuses on public opinion and politically relevant sentiments, voting behaviour, political parties, political participation and social movements. He has published books and articles on elections, voting behaviour, parliamentary and presidential elections, party competition, populism and Euroscepticism. His most recent research has investigated the impact of information on political attitudes and opinions, (negative) political emotions and belief in conspiracy theories. A full list of his publications and public lectures can be found here: https://research.vu.nl/en/persons/andré-krouwel
Title: Trans-medial strategic conspiracy narratives: Analysis of Soros-related conspiracy theories of Estonian right-wing populists
Abstract: My presentation seeks answers to following questions: 1) Why are conspiracy narratives relevant for strategic communication?2) How/why does strategic transmedia storytelling work? 3) How do Estonian right-wing populists circulate Soros-related transmedial conspiracy narratives? What kind of meaning-making does it evoke? In my analysis I rely on examples taken form Estonian right-wing populist news sites Uued Uudised and Objektiiv.
Bio: Mari-Liis Madisson received her Ph.D. in Semiotics and Culture Studies from the University of Tartu in 2016. She is a Research Fellow at the Department of Semiotics at the University of Tartu and a visiting Research Fellow at School Of History, Anthropology, Philosophy And Politics at the Queen´s University Belfast. Her research combines cultural semiotics, political semiotics, communication & media studies. Her research interests lie in online culture, conspiracy theories, information influence activities, extreme right communication.
Title: Radicalization and Political Violence – Challenges of Conceptualizing and Researching Origins, Processes and Politics of Illiberal Beliefs
Abstract: Nowadays, radicalism and radicalization gain a lot of public attention and are seen as one of many signs of a political crisis. This belies how ambivalent the terms are. The paper argues for a broader understanding of radicalization to explore the whole spectrum of radicalization phenomena: from radicalization without violence to radicalization into violence and radicalization within violence. Such a broad concept helps to ensure that radicalization is not conflated with situations of imminent threats of violence, which too often results in curtailing civil liberties and forms of social and political stigmatization. In addition, a broad understanding offers the opportunity of a discursive and regulative space in the area of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention.
Bio: Dr. Julian Junk is head of the Research Group „Radicalization“ at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF/HSFK) and he heads PRIF’s Berlin office. He holds a master and a PhD from Konstanz University in the area of public administration and International Relations.
Khalil Mutallimzada: https://uppsala.academia.edu/KhalilMutallimzada
Title: Extremism and Uncertainty among Ukrainian right-wing fighters
Abstract: In response to the conflict in eastern Ukraine, breaking out in April 2014, thousands of Ukrainians voluntarily enrolled into various paramilitary battalions. During the following years, all battalions, except the Right Sector’s Volunteer Ukrainian Corps, have been incorporated into official defense and security structures. This study investigates why some combatants still choose to serve in the paramilitary Right Sector’s Volunteer Ukrainian Corps rather than joining the state-sanctioned military. The aim is to deepen the understanding of how these combatants construct their experience of uncertainty and how this motivates them to seek membership in this paramilitary organization.
This multisite case study is conducted in the regions of Odesa and Donetsk, analyzing interviews, observations, and printed documents published by the organization. The study applies uncertainty-identity theory, exploring how uncertainty in an individual’s own life, or their environment can prompt them to seek stable structures through belonging to a extremist group and/or adopting an often rigid ideology. The results indicate that participants’ identification with an organization with stable structures might alleviate their feelings of self-uncertainty. The analysis is divided into five parts (motivations; interpretations; the construction of experience of self-uncertainty; attractive organizational features; and the nature of fighters’ relations) and aims at understanding the motivations of participants and how uncertainty is constructed through the membership in the Right Sector’ s Volunteer Ukrainian Corps. The findings of this study give a holistic account about participants’ feelings of self-uncertainty through their multifaceted and complex experiences. Analysis of the data reveal that the clear group prototype and the high entitativity of the Right Sector’s Volunteer Ukrainian Corps increased participants’ self-confidence, which inspired their continued identification with the group.
Bio: Khalil Mutallimzada has a BA in Law from Baku State University, Azerbaijan and a BA in Peace and Conflict Studies from Malmö University, Sweden. Currently he is doing his MA in Russian and Eurasian Studies at Uppsala University, Sweden.
Kristian Steiner: http://forskning.mah.se/en/id/imkrst
Title: Extremism and Uncertainty among Ukrainian right-wing fighters
Abstract: see above!
Bio: Kristian Steiner holds a PhD in Political Science and is an Associate Professor in Peace and Conflict Studies, Malmö University, Sweden. He is currently focusing on religious and ideological radicalization, religion and war, and the construction of enemy images. Dr. Steiner’s empirical work concerns Israel and Eastern Europe. His previous research, among other things, involved the representations of Muslims and Islam in Swedish Christian newspapers.
Title: Transnational Extremist Movements: The U.S.-Swedish New Right Connection
Abstract: The continuous rise of far-right content and its increasing public acceptance under the Trump Administration are clearly observable in online spaces, where antisemitic and racist conspiracy theories are widely spread. The growing number of white supremacist terror attacks across the world show ideological relations to the progressively hateful transnational ‘New Right’ movement. This paper analyzes shared discourses, tactics, and strategies of mainstreaming hatred via memes and irony online. Focusing on Sweden as the primary example for exploiting deep-seated fears concerning multiculturalism in New Right forums, it looks at what drives dystopian discourse about Sweden in particular. It also discusses the strategies of the U.S. Alt-Right and ideologically connected affiliations to perpetuate an image of Swedish cultural deterioration using a fictionalized historical Sweden. This paper analyzes how these strategic narratives propagate and motivate an ultimately violent xenophobic worldview on- and offline illustrated through the platform given to Swedish extremists on prominent U.S. media channels. Furthermore, it examines the personal, ideological, and organizational connections between the Swedish and U.S. far-right in terms of internet usage, rhetoric, and self-presentation. A special focus lies on both online and offline linkages between Swedish and U.S. New Right organizations, groups, and individuals.
Bio: Merle Frederike Sontheimer is an American Studies undergrad at the University of Leipzig. Her research focusses on populist movements on the far-right with a special interest in New Right transnational ties regarding narratives, organizations, and individuals.
Title: International Relations of Hate: How the Radical Right Exploits the International System
Abstract: The globalisation of world politics has derailed the state as the principal political agent in the international system. Despite a powerful (rhetorical) return of state agency underpinned by populist rhetoric–as the cases of the US under Trump, the UK under Johnson or the neo-realist governance of Putin amply exemplify-- there is nothing that suggests that the trend of decoupling power and territory will not continue for the foreseeable future. This is occasioned not least by globally shared burdens without borders such as migration, climate change, economic inequality and a host of existing and unpredictable violent conflicts. From an idealist position understanding of the international system, there has been an underlying normative assumption that agency exerted by transnational civil society is capable of mitigating some of these downsides or can even promote the positive universalist values of international order. The recent initiative to establish a world parliament can be seen as an example of this development towards inclusive global governance. National and local NGO’s and INGO’s are expected to compensate for larger policy failures through voluntary action. The efforts of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) – despite their systematic lack of accountability and resilience – have developed, and are likely to retain, a major role in off-setting deficits of governance through the delivery of political goods. However, it is possible to witness another, contradicting trend: the rise of a global ‘un-civil’ or ‘non-civil’ society, aggressively promoting particularism and abusing the inclusive universalism of the human rights framework for its own exclusionary purposes. These positions are coupled with populist meaning-making, the process by which these expressions are identified as performative representations of the ‘people’s voice’ from below. See also: https://www.blogalstudies.com/post/international-relations-of-hate-how-the-radical-right-has-conquered-territory-in-the-international?fbclid=IwAR3A4Ig83tvZUnh_l0GJke6m8bvprw81bZnJ2vFeRDJn_4WA4rmO7YagmNU
Bio: Dr. Andreas Önnerfors is Associate Professor in the History of Sciences and Ideas at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He has specialized in the cultural and intellectual history of the European enlightenment period with a particular focus on intellectual networks and encounters, secret societies and conspiracy theories. Since 2015, he has investigated the ideas of populist right-wing rhetoric mainly in Germany. He regularly contributes articles to the Centre for the Analysis of the Radical Right (https://www.radicalrightanalysis.com) as well as to national and international media.
Title: The Internationalization of Lone Wolf Terrorism
Abstract: 'Lone wolf' terrorism has a long and bloody past, even if the context of this tactic has changed markedly over time and place. From a transnational perspective, over the last three decades self-activating attacks by right-wing extremists and, more recently, jihadi Islamists, have witnessed a noticeable spike with the onset of the Internet Age. By approaching these solo acts of terrorism as a transnational phenomenon, this presentation will retrace both the historical trajectory and recent revival of this self-directed recourse to the “terrorist cycle.” - thus carefully separating this process from the more generic 'network of support’ found in all forms of terrorism. In doing so, this presentation reviews of some key instances and interpretations of what is most often called 'lone wolf terrorism', with a particular focus on recent acts of radical right attacks in the US, Europe, the Antipodean and elsewhere.In addition to offering a definition of this form of terrorism now at its most ideologically and geographically disparate, this overview will also identify one pattern of radicalisation that highlights an ideological and international dimension somentimes missing from discussions of this 21st century ‘face’ of violent extremism.
Bio: Matthew Feldman is a specialist on fascist ideology and the far-right in Europe and the USA, and directs the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right. A longstanding feature of his work is a record of public engagement and policy-based impact, including briefings for various governmental bodies; reports for leading NGOs; testimony in more than a dozen radical right trials; and several hundred media interviews. Now an Emeritus Professor in the Modern History of ideas, he is the author or editor of more than 20 books, including three monographs and a critical edition, as well as more than 40 articles or academic book chapters. His second collection of essays, Politics, Intellectuals and Faith, will appear in spring 2020.
Title: (Only) In the Name of the Victims? Forensic Architecture and the Politics of Reading Terrorism
Abstract: In early November 2011, the German terrorist organisation ‘National Socialist Underground’ (NSU) was uncovered. More than a dozen crimes – including a murder series and three bombings that mostly targeted people with Turkish roots – have been attributed to the NSU in the weeks, months, and years since. The trial against the only surviving member of the core trio of the group, Beate Zschäpe, and four supporters at the Regional High Court in Munch ended after more than 5 years in July 2018, but the verdicts have not yet been validated. The discovery of the perpetrators immediately prompted the re-labelling of the crimes (that had previously been located within a criminal ‘migrant milieu’) as “right-wing terrorism” across the political, societal, academic, and legal spheres. However, what exactly this means in relation to the embeddedness of right-wing extremist ideologies in German society, forms of victimhood, and continuing threat perceptions, remains contested. In this talk, I will address one aspect of this ‘politics of reading right-wing terrorism’. This is the promotion (by civil society initiatives) and reception (by German courts and parliaments) of the work of Forensic Architecture, a London-based agency investigating state violence through media, spatial, and visual research. I will discuss how the alternative forensic evidence that it provides has become part of the struggle for recognition of victimhood/survivorship within the confounds of German bureaucracy, and how its status as art helps to transcend administrative, temporal, and national boundaries of creating knowledge about right-terrorism by making that struggle visible in different forums and to diverse audiences.
Bio: Josefin Graef is a postdoctoral scholar researching the societal conditions for responding to far-right political violence and terrorism in Europe. She has previously been a Dahrendorf Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hertie School in Berlin (2018-19) and worked as a research assistant at the University of Birmingham and as a text analyst for a social insight agency in London (2017-18). She is currently completing her first monograph "The Politics of Reading Right-wing Terrorism” (Routledge, 2020).
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