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This book offers a detailed understanding of ‘enemy images’, which are used in political rhetoric to dehumanize adversaries for various purposes, such as to legitimate violent conflicts. Applying theoretical models to a strong catalogue of historical and recent examples – from blood libel narratives in medieval manuscripts, to state-sponsored children’s board games in Nazi Germany and social media posts about the wars in Gaza and Ukraine – the book identifies how ‘enemy images’ have led to the development of dominant socio-political paradigms by providing justifications for and reinforcements of violent conflicts both within and between societies. In doing so, the work offers an up-to-date, accessible and authoritative overview of how to identify, analyse, and counteract energy images – which will be key to fostering social environments of reconciliation and peacebuilding for the future. This book will be of much interest to students and scholars of peace and conflict studies, International Relations, history, political sociology, and communication studies.
Radicalisation is a conceptual investigation within Western liberal democratic societies that follows an analytical framework linking expertise theory to discourse analysis of publications from the academic, governmental, and non-governmental spheres, as well as a dozen interviews with experts in the field. The reader will come to understand the socio-political configurations that led to the emergence of radicalisation as an object of study. The book also identifies the historical tensions regarding models, definitions, and operationalisation of the concept of radicalisation in social sciences research. Finally, a new model explaining how the term radicalisation became the central conceptual...
Researching the Far Right brings together researchers from across the humanities and social sciences to provide much needed discussion about the methodological, ethical, political, personal, practical and professional issues and challenges that arise when researching far right parties, their electoral support, and far right protest movements. Drawing on original research focussing mainly on Europe and North America over the last 30 years, this volume explores in detail the opportunities and challenges associated with using ethnographic, interview-based, quantitative and online research methods to study the far right. These reflections are set within a wider discussion of the evolution of far...
A timely exploration of the history and present-day threat of fascism in the United States.
Within the general framework of the European TRIVALENT project, the comparative analysis presented here focuses, alongside policy measures taken at EU level, on counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation policies implemented by five European countries; namely, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. These case studies with their peculiarities and differences offer insights into the role of long-term and structural factors in defining counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation policies, and highlight the influence that specific occurrences can have. The volume analyses different types of public policies, including repressive, preventive, legal and administrative measures, together with the role of civil society in preventing and mitigating radicalisation processes. The book offers an updated and critical assessment of the main anti-terrorism and anti-radicalisation policies of the five aforementioned countries, and their strengths and weaknesses, identifying possible evolutionary lines and proposing a series of recommendations.
Throughout the world, democracy is under assault from various populist movements and ideologies. And, throughout the world, the same enigma: why is it that political figures or governments, who have no qualms about aggravating social inequalities, enjoy the support of those whom their ideas and policies affect and hurt the most? To make sense of this enigma, the sociologist Eva Illouz argues that we must understand the crucial role that emotions play in our political life. Taking the case of Israel as her prime example, she shows that populist politics rest on four key emotions: fear, disgust, resentment, and love for one’s country. It is the combination of these four emotions and their relentless presence in the political arena that nourishes and underpins the rise and persistence of populism both in Israel and in many other countries around the world. This highly original perspective on the rise of populism will be of interest to anyone who wishes to understand the key political developments of our time.
The Gulf monarchies—Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates—play crucial roles in world markets and politics. Their economies, which have traditionally been driven by oil revenues, have simultaneously propelled transformative change and preserved the traditional order. Fossil fuel wealth has underwritten an implicit social contract characterized by generous welfare states, ruler-centric politics, and a heavy state presence in the economy, facilitating stability during tumultuous times. However, as the transition toward renewable energy looms, will the Gulf monarchies be able to adapt? David B. Roberts offers a definitive guide to continuity and change in ...
This edited volume investigates place, product, and personal branding in the Middle East and North Africa, including some studies from adjacent regions and the wider Islamicate world. Going beyond simply presenting logos and slogans, it critically analyses processes of strategic communication and image building under general conditions of globalisation, neoliberalisation, and postmodernisation and, in a regional perspective, of lasting authoritarian rule and increased endeavours for "worlding." In particular, it looks at the multiple actors involved in branding activities, their interests and motives, and investigates tools, channels, and forms of branding. A major interest exists in the entanglements of different spatial scales and in the (in)consistencies of communication measures. Attention is paid to reconfigurations of certain images over time and to the positioning of objects of branding in time and space. Historical case studies supplement the focus on contemporary branding efforts. While branding in the Western world and many emerging economies has been meticulously analysed, this edited volume fills an important gap in the research on MENA countries.
This edited collection considers whether it is possible to discern how the level of ideology is affected by radicalization. In other words: what happens in the minds of people before they decide to use political violence as means to attain their goals? Also this book asks: what has to happen in the minds of people in order to preclude them from using political violence as a way of attaining their goals? This volume unites scholars from several disciplines and perspectives from a number of different geographical, social and cultural contexts with the overarching aim to refine our understanding of what ‘radicalization’ actually implies.