How to Explain Radicalization?: A Comparison on the Driving Factors of the Far-right, the Far-left, Separatist and Religious Extremism

Radicalization emerges where personal trajectory intersects with enabling environments, revealing evolving extremism dynamics.

This book is based on findings from the Horizon2020 Project “Participation. Analysing and Preventing Extremism via Participation” (Grant Agreement 962547) funded by the European Commission. Its main goal is to provide an updated, well-informed and nuanced picture of the contemporary research into the factors influencing pathways of radicalization towards violent extremism in the European landscape. Different kinds of extremism are taken into consideration (far-right, far-left, separatist and religious extremism) through a mixed approach that combined a qualitative study with textual-statistical analyses. One of the most relevant outcomes of our research on current radicalization studies is that, for all types of extremisms analyzed, the process of radicalization is understood as an event that occurs at the intersection between a personal trajectory and a permissive, or enabling, environment. Cumulative extremism dynamics and new places of radicalization are also noted as further trends to be monitored.

Francesco Antonelli is Professor of General Sociology at Political Science Department, “Roma Tre” University. He is the coordinator of the Horizon2020 Project Participation: Analyzing and Preventing Extremism Via Participation (2020-2023) and he was work-package leader of the Horizon2020 Project Trivalent: Terrorism pReventIon Via rAdicaLisation countEr-NarraTive (2017-2020).

Lorenzo Marinone is a researcher at the European Foundation for Democracy (EFD). His work focuses on radicalization, violent extremism, and social inclusion. He is a researcher in the Horizon2020 Project Participation: Analyzing and Preventing Extremism Via Participation (20202023) and was a researcher in the ISF-P Project Circero: Counter-narrative Communication Campaign Aimed At Preventing Radicalisation (2019-2021). He has worked on these issues with Italian the Italian governmental organizations (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense, the Senate), as well as with international organizations (NATO, FAO).