Routledge Handbook on Radicalisation and Countering Radicalisation

This handbook provides a theoretical and methodological exploration of the research on radicalisation and counter-radicalisation, one of the most influential concepts in Security Studies, International Relations, and Peace and Conflict Studies.

Sitting at the heart of high-profile research and policy agendas on preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE), radicalisation as a concept has transformed the way researchers, policymakers, and societies think about how to counter terrorism and political violence. Deliberations about radicalisation and countering radicalisation have become further embedded as efforts to prevent and counter violent extremism have been ‘mainstreamed’ into other areas of public policy and practice, such as education, gender relations, health, peacebuilding, aid, and development. Theoretically and methodologically pluralistic, this handbook addresses radicalisation and countering radicalisation as they relate to a wide range of groups and milieus, articulating diverse ideological positions, drawing together insight and experience from multiple geographic and institutional settings, integrating global perspectives, and including scholarship focused on a range of policy fields.

This book will be an essential reference point for anybody working on radicalisation, countering radicalisation, or terrorism and political violence more broadly. The insight that it provides will be relevant for both academics and members of relevant policy and practitioner communities.

Joel Busher is Professor of Political Sociology at the Institute for Peace and Security, Coventry University. He is co-editor of Researching the Far Right: Theory, Method and Practice (Routledge, 2021) and author of The Making of Anti-Muslim Protest (Routledge, 2016), which was awarded the British Sociological Association’s Philip Abrams Memorial Prize.

Leena Malkki is Director of the Centre for European Studies at the University of Helsinki. She is the chair of the ECPR Standing Group on Political Violence and a member of the editorial board of Terrorism and Political Violence.

Sarah Marsden is Senior Lecturer in the School of International Relations at the University of St. Andrews. She is the author of Reintegrating Extremists: Deradicalisation and Disengagement.