Obiettivi formativi
1) Analyzing and understanding terrorism and political violence through sociological lens; 2) Learning to use ethnographic research methods and participant observation within hate groups and violence-promoting extremists, including extreme-left and extreme-right terrorists.
Prerequisiti
The prerequisite condition is the willingness to participate.
The sociology of terrorism course is based on classroom participation that includes exchanges between instructor and students or within small groups of students. Students are also required to give class presentations
Risultati di apprendimento attesi
1) how to use sociological theory to explain terrorism and political violence; 2) how to make direct contact and deal with violent extremists to conduct ethnographic research;
Contenuti Del Corso
1) Radicalization leading to terrorism and political violence; 2) terrorist plots in the West; 3) female suicide terrorism; 4) micro-sociology of violence; 5) doing ethnography within violent groups. Talking about his own experience, Professor Alessandro Orsini also analyzes the psychological costs that the sociologist must pay when he interacts with men and women who, in addition to proudly claiming credit for the homicides they have committed, affirm the importance of continuing to kill in order to salvage humanity’s future.
Testi Di Riferimento
Alessandro Orsini, "Sacrifice. My Life in a Fascist Militia", Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press 2017, PLUS 10 academic articles and reports that will be distributed at any class.
Metodologie Didattiche
The teaching method is based on the idea that the professor is a "conductor" who encourages and helps student to take part in a debate at any class
Modalità di verifica dell'apprendimento
Oral Exam
Criteri per l’assegnazione dell’elaborato finale
Students must score 30/30 on the oral exam to qualify for the Master's thesis
Settimana 1
The Definition of Terrorism. Fathali M. Moghaddam’s Staircase to Terrorism is included in the “processual” radicalization models aiming at reconstructing the chronological and existential phases that transform an individual into a terrorist. As stated by Moghaddam, the more steps climbed by the individual, the fewer the chances that they can abandon the path toward terrorism. The perception that the individual has of the situation they are experiencing is fundamental.
Settimana 2
According to Marc Sageman, radicalization is deeply rooted in group dynamics that are common to every human group. Faith and fanaticism are grounded and sustained in intense small group dynamics characterized by very tight ties.
Settimana 3
Mitchell Silber and Arvin Bhatt published a four-phase radicalization model in 2007. According to the model, the jihadist ideology is the “primum movens” of radicalization. The model does not aim at explaining the radicalization process in general, but only a specific type of radicalization, that is the one that spontaneously takes place in Western cities.
Settimana 4
The fourth milestone in the studies on radicalization is The Psychology of Terrorism, written by John Horgan, firstly published in 2005. Horgan notes that an individual can commit a violent act, but violence becomes more effective when an organization is able to mobilize a great amount of material and immaterial resources.
Settimana 5
Radical Islam Rising, written by Quintan Wiktorowicz and published in 2005, aims at understanding how al-Muhajiroun – a radical Islamist movement that has also praised the 9/11 attack – rebuilds the identity of its new members.
Settimana 6
Female terrorism. What do terrorism scholars know about female suicide terrorists?
Settimana 7
McCauley and Moskalenko divide radicalization in three levels: individual radicalization, group radicalization, and mass radicalization.
Settimana 8
The DRIA model was first published in Alessandro Orsini’s Anatomy of the Red Brigades (2009) and further developed in a series of articles and books devoted to the jihadi terrorists who succeeded in carrying out terror attacks in the West between 2004 and 2018. The DRIA model conceives of ideology as the necessary, albeit inadequate, condition for accepting the idea of killing and being killed.
DRIA is an acronym that stands for:
Disintegration of Social Identity
Reconstruction of Social Identity through a Radical Ideology Integration in a Revolutionary Sect
Alienation from the Surrounding World
Settimana 9
The Three Pillars of Radicalization by Arie W. Kruglanski, Jocelyn J. Belanger e Rohan Gunaratna (2019) contains one of the most interesting and well-researched theories of radicalization, attaching equal importance to radical ideology as does the DRIA model.
The three authors offer a psychological perspective on extremism as a general phenomenon of which radicalization leading to terrorism is just a particular case.
Settimana 10
Social theorist Randall Collins helps us understand that to use violence in an effective manner, terrorists must control the flow of adrenaline that invades their bodies when they are ready to kill their victims. As is true for all people, terrorists also fear physical clashes; they fear killing and being killed. How do they control this fear and remain lucid when they shoot? Professor Orsini presents his article "Are Terrorists Courageous? Micro-Sociology of Extreme Left Terrorism" on how terrorists kill their vitims after having placed them in a desperate situation that does not allow for any escape.
Settimana 11
In "The Al Qaeda Factor" Mitchell Silber examines sixteen Al Qaeda-associated plots and attacks, from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing to today. For each case, he probes primary sources and applies a series of questions to determine the precise involvement of Al Qaeda. What connects radicalized groups in the West to the core Al Qaeda organization in the borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan? Does one of the plotters have to attend an Al Qaeda training camp or meet with an Al Qaeda trainer, or can they simply be inspired by Al Qaeda ideology?
Settimana 12
In "Sacrifice. My Life in a Fascist Militia" Professor Orsini tells how he joined two local groups of a neofascist organization he names "Sacrifice" in two neighboring cities with very different political cultures. Using participant observation, Orsini shows how fascists live day to day, how they understand their world, and how they build a parallel universe in which the correctness and probity of their attitudes are clear.