The rhetoric and reality: radicalization and political discourse

Abstract

This article will illustrate how the term ‘radicalization’ has both contributed to and been the subject of the social construction of risk surrounding violence and radicalization. To this extent, contemporary discussions of radicalization are related to ideas of ‘vulnerability’ and susceptibility to ‘extremism’ – topics which facilitate problematic assertions of inherent relationships between challenging ideas and the propensity for violence. The article will close by providing some corrective suggestions to push forward less subjectively framed research, while still engaging in the complex examination of the relationships between identities, ideas, and violence.