Suchergebnisse

© 2016 Society for Terrorism Research. The relationship between democracy and terrorism remains a source of significant debate, with academic evidence suggesting that democracy both inhibits and encourages acts of terrorism and political violence. Accepting this apparent contradiction, this paper argues that a more nuanced approach to understanding political systems, focussing on the subjective perceptions of individual actors, may allow these differences to be reconciled. Using regression analysis undertaken with UK data from the European Values Study, the results shows how attitudes to politics may frame assessments of the intrinsic valence–or attractiveness–of political participation, support for terrorism, and the implications this may have for both counter-terrorism and counter-extremism policy.

"This book deals with the rise of right wing in Europe and the development of right wing movements in Europe across all countries of the continent"--

1. Introduction, Mark Lee And Benjamin Littler -- 2. Pioneers Of World Wide Web Fascism: The British Extreme Right And Web 1.0, Jackson And Jones -- 3. Cumulative Extremism And The Online Space - Reciprocal Radicalisation Effects Between The Extreme Right And Radical Islamists In The UK, Allchorn -- 4. Haters Gonna Like: Exploring Canadian Far-Right Extremism On Facebook, Scrivens And Amarasingam -- 5. Neo-Nazis Have Stolen Our Memes: Making Sense Of Extreme Memes, Benjamin Lee -- 6. Then And Now: Irish Republicanism And Ulster Loyalism Online, Bowman-Grieve And Herron -- 7. Animal Rights Extremism And The Internet, Monaghan And Mcalister -- 8. Demonic Slappers And Fascists? Exploring Extreme British Anti-Abortion Activism On Facebook, Mark Littler -- 9. Jihadi Fans Revisited: Mapping The Commonalities With Non-Islamic Extremism, Ramsay -- 10. Developing Effective And Ethical 'Secondary' Intervention Programmes To Counter Radicalisation And Polarisation, Birdwell -- 11. Researching The Radical Right: Making Use Of The Digital Space And Its Challenges, Carter And Kondor -- 12. Conclusion, Mark Littler and Benjamin Lee.

Abstract
Much research has sought to map the spread of extreme and populist political ideologies across Western Europe. Despite this, it often fails to explain how these ideologies move from the political fringes to positions of influence, subverting the traditional cordon sanitaire around extreme views. As a result of recent successes by populist actors, a more nuanced understanding of this process is required.
This paper posits an explanation for this success, suggesting that the growing pluralisation of the online media environment and the impact of social media content sharing are key to understanding how fringe political actors avoid both overt and implicit barriers to popularising extreme positions. Using data from the British Election Study, this paper offers a quantitative test of this approach, finding an inconsistent relationship between social media use and extreme political opinions. Potential explanations for this are discussed alongside possible directions for future research.

© John Benjamins Publishing Company. Much research has sought to map the spread of extreme and populist political ideologies across Western Europe. Despite this, it often fails to explain how these ideologies move from the political fringes to positions of influence, subverting the traditional cordon sanitaire around extreme views. As a result of recent successes by populist actors, a more nuanced understanding of this process is required. This paper posits an explanation for this success, suggesting that the growing pluralisation of the online media environment and the impact of social media content sharing are key to understanding how fringe political actors avoid both overt and implicit barriers to popularising extreme positions. Using data from the British Election Study, this paper offers a quantitative test of this approach, finding an inconsistent relationship between social media use and extreme political opinions. Potential explanations for this are discussed alongside possible directions for future research.

This paper identifies and analyses the use of social media by the British National Party (BNP) – a far-right party based in the UK. The analysis centres on changing forms of political participation, suggesting that the BNP, as well as other political parties both on the far-right and in the political mainstream, are using social media to provide the opportunity for casual or even accidental engagement by sharing or engaging with material over social networks. To illustrate this point, the author draws on an extensive sample of visual material posted by the BNP on the social network Facebook. Engaging with material produced by far-right groups such as the BNP potentially opens audience members up to a number of personal, professional and legal risks. The paper concludes by linking the potential for casual or accidental far-right engagement online to wider calls to support more rounded and digitally literate citizenship education.

New social and political movements from radically different political positions have emerged across Europe using the Internet to challenge existing parties and structures. Beppe Grillo, the Italian comedian and blogger, is the most prominent figure to have embraced this change through the creation first of all of the 'Friends of Beppe Grillo' meet-up groups and then, in 2009, the Movimento Cinque Stelle (M5S - Five-Star Movement), What makes Grillo and the M5S especially interesting is how they combine online and offline activities both in their communications and mobilization strategies. Having detailed the history, structure and policies of the M5S, this report presents the results of a survey of 1,865 Facebook fans of Beppe Grillo and the Movimento 5 Stelle. It includes data on who they are, what they think, and what motivates them to shift from virtual to real-world activism. It finds them to be characterized by extremely low levels of trust in mainstream parties, parliament and traditional media. ; -- Acknowledgements 7 -- A note on terminology 9 -- Executive summary 11 -- 1 Background 21 -- 2 Findings 29 -- 3 Method 45 -- Notes 49 -- References 57