AbstractsBiology & Animal Science

The phenomenon of global terrorism is still not fully understood by the international community whether within the contingents of public decision-makers, security agencies and researchers. Radicalization as explanation and analytical tool for understanding terrorism has relatively recently gained new prominence. In this project the question of which discourses can be found in the scientific material within the research field of terrorism and radicalization is addressed. A sample of scientific texts were chosen from within the timeframe ranging from 2004 - 2013. The sample was analyzed using an approach composed of Fairclough’s critical discourse theory concepts of intertextuality and interdiscursivity, combined with the concepts for identifying discourses found in Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. Our findings suggest that a more nuanced discourse in relation to the concept of radicalization developed during the applied timeframe. Furthermore, our findings suggest that an arguably sensitively laden and ideologically dominated topic which is likely to be subjectively conceived, can fuel a commonly constructed perception of certain population groups. The analysis supports to a certain degree the argument that the study of radicalization needs to be detached from Muslims and Islam and the perception of risk, in order to break new ground in how we think about challenging/disagreeing on the status quo within a society.