Location: Europe. Occupation: Mujahedeen : choosing the radical Islamist career track
Abstract
This thesis conceptualises Islamist radicalisation in Europe as a process of
occupational choice. It follows the approach to individual radicalisation as incremental
development (process) with the consideration of multi-level factors and dynamics. The
analysis leading to this multi-phase process is grounded in data, comparative and
comprehensive since it adopts a perspective of individual life-stories. It conceptualises
radicalisation phases and the whole process not as something specific but as a concrete
variation of a more general process. It further accounts for gradual change in time instead
of sudden and radical points of change from ‘normality’ to radicalism, at the same time
clearly defining the phases of involvement and the main categories and conditions
impacting on the Islamist occupational choice. The theoretical framework integrates
rational choice and framing theory elements within a general approach to the
phenomenon of interest as social process. The methodology used is grounded theory and
the data sources are in the majority primary data from fieldwork in Austria, France and
Germany, along with secondary data and literature as directed by theoretical sampling.
The structure of the thesis develops as follows: a discussion and clarification of
the radicalism and ‘radicalisation’ concepts; a review and critique of the main
contributions in the literature on Islamist radicalisation in Europe; the outline, rationale
and application of the methodology; the emergence and dynamics of the Islamist radical
occupational choice process; the analysis of occupational choice categories; and the
emergence and impact of interpretative frameworks in shaping occupational choice
categories.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
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