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A social movement theory typology of militant organisations : contextualising terrorism

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Marsden_2014_TPV_ASocial_AM.pdf (574.3Kb)
Date
2015
Author
Marsden, Sarah Victoria
Keywords
Typology
Social Movement Theory
Multidimensional Partial Order Scalogram by Coordinates
Mixed methods
Conceptualising militant groups
JZ International relations
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Abstract
Typologies are ubiquitous in terrorism studies, illustrating their continued appeal as a tool to further our understanding of this form of political violence. Despite this, to date, the promise of an empirically derived typology has largely been neglected. In addressing this gap, this article sets out a typology developed from Social Movement Theory. Using a novel statistical technique to derive a three-dimensional framework for categorising militant groups, the typology incorporates both organisational characteristics and the wider political context. The result is a typology defined by three conceptual constructs: political capacity, war-making capacity, and network capacity. Alongside these organisational features, imposing measures of the wider political opportunity structure reveals eight types of militant organisation. To explore the utility of the framework, a preliminary analysis interprets the typology in light of the presence of wider conflict. That a robust relationship is found between the various types and whether groups were operating in peacetime, civil war, or low-intensity conflict, goes some way to demonstrating its utility as an analytical tool. Conclusions draw attention to the importance of contextualising militant groups in their socio-political setting, and the benefits of combining theory alongside empirical analysis to develop robust characterisations of violent organisations.
Citation
Marsden , S V 2015 , ' A social movement theory typology of militant organisations : contextualising terrorism ' , Terrorism and Political Violence . https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2014.954039
Publication
Terrorism and Political Violence
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2014.954039
ISSN
0954-6553
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Terrorism and Political Violence on 01/10/2014, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09546553.2014.954039
Description
Date of acceptance 8/8/14
Collections
  • Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV) Research
  • International Relations Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/8528

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