Description
Written by global, multidisciplinary experts, Explaining Extreme Belief and Behavior moves beyond definitions of the phenomena of conspiracy theorizing, extremism, fanaticism, fundamentalism, and terrorism and shifts into how we can explain these extreme beliefs and behaviors. The first part of the book examines various fundamental theoretical and contextual issues such as the relationship between understanding and explaining extremism, challenges in explaining extreme beliefs, and pitfalls of current approaches. The second part delves into related methodological issues, including the desiderata for viable explanations--qualitative and quantitative data, macro-, meso-, and microlevels of analysis, first- and third-person accounts, attitudes and behaviors, or beliefs and actions. The third part explores related empirical issues and challenges--how we conceive and integrate insights into such related phenomena as the turn to extremism in particular contexts, the rise of extremist movements, and radicalization. This volume builds upon the first two in the Extreme Belief and Behavior Series by studying the very project of explaining extreme belief and behavior.
Table of Contents
AcknowledgmentsList of FiguresList of TablesContributorsIntroduction: The Project of Explaining Extreme Belief and BehaviorRik Peels and Lorne L. DawsonPart I: Theoretical and Contextual Issues and ChallengesChapter 1: Explaining and Understanding Extremism: The Relation Between Two Aims in Radicalization StudiesRik PeelsChapter 2: Explaining Terrorism and Violent ExtremismMartha CrenshawChapter 3: The Extreme Actor's Perspective, and Why It Matters for ExplanationNaomi Kloosterboer and Jaron HarambamChapter 4: Empathy, Imaginative Resistance, and Fragmentary Understanding: Trying to Make Sense of ExtremismKarsten R. StueberChapter 5: Assessing the Constructivist Critique of the Evidential Value of Terrorists' Accounts of Their ActionsLorne L. DawsonPart II: Methodological and Ethical Issues and ChallengesChapter 6: The Matrix of Methodological Problems in the Study of Extreme Beliefs and Behaviors: From the Vantage Point of the Study of Violent ExtremismLorne L. DawsonChapter 7: Integrating Macro-, Meso-, and Microlevel Explanations of Violent MobilizationLianne VostermansChapter 8: Accessing the Field, Defining People, and Exploring Extended Complicity: Reflections on a Framework for Ethnographic Research with Militant ActivistsMartijn de KoningChapter 9: Ethical Challenges and Multidisciplinary Norms in Terrorism StudiesJohn F. MorrisonChapter 10: Narrativity and Emotionality in Explaining Extreme Beliefs and BehaviorsLaura FeldtPart III: Empirical Issues and ChallengesChapter 11: Explaining the Links Between Poor Mental Health and Violent Extremism: From the Determination of Presence to the Delineation of RelevanceEmily CornerChapter 12: Radicalization as Gendered: Why We Cannot Explain Extremism Without Taking Gender SeriouslyElizabeth PearsonChapter 13: Explaining QAnon as Lived ReligionMarc-André ArgentinoChapter 14: In No One We Trust: How Conspiratorial Thinking Turned White Supremacist Groups Anti-AmericanBethan JohnsonChapter 15: Nativist and Islamist Radicalism in Europe: Co-Radicalization of Young European CitizensAyhan KayaChapter 16: Psychological Motivation for Reactive Extremism, and How to Quell ItIan McGregorIndex
