Title:	Situating Emotions in Radicalization. Online-based Affectivity and Violent Extremism
Authors:	Valentini, Daniele
Thesis advisor:	Stephan, Achim
Thesis referee:	Coninx, Sabrina
Abstract:	What is the role of emotions in the radicalization of violent extremists? This question has been neglected by traditional research approaches to the study of radicalization in favor of a focus on factors like ideological stances, socio-economic background, social ties, and personality traits. In my dissertation, I tackle this question head-on and try to show that:1) emotions and other affective states play a crucial role in the radicalization of different individuals; 2) situated affectivity is a refined theoretical framework to examine how emotions influence radicalization processes from which experts can elaborate implementable guidelines to bolster their counter-extremism interventions; 3) online radicalization offers situated affectivity an interesting testbed to probe and refine the robustness of its analytical toolkit by considering how internet-based relations and artifacts contribute to shaping human affectivity. Radicalization is commonly defined as the process of embracing an extremist ideology and justifying or perpetrating violent actions in the name of such ideology. Most analyses of violent extremism concentrate on dissecting the tight-knit link between extremist beliefs and political violent behavior up to the point that some experts consider ideas the conveyor belt that leads to violent actions. This conception is detectable in the design of preventive and counter-extremism measures. Oftentimes, de-radicalization campaigns are centered on disproving the ideology underpinning jihadi and far-right propaganda. Although extremist ideas play a crucial role, the overzealous focus on beliefs does not sit well with empirical data. On the one hand, a lot of people holding radical beliefs never translate them into actions: it is estimated that roughly 1% of the people with extremist worldviews engage in terrorist attacks. On the other hand, some perpetrators are not driven by ideology. Hence, there has to be more to radicalization than just ideas. Scholars have identified social ties and socio-economic backgrounds as powerful drivers of radicalization. Extremists radicalize in small cliques of trusted peers where friendship weighs in considerably. Most recently, social psychologists found out that – alongside ideology – a willingness for adventure, camaraderie, a sense of belonging and a quest for significance, defined as a desire to matter, impinge upon radicalization. As a result, the calls for analyzing the impact of emotions on radicalization kept growing. However, so far, little progress has been made in this direction. This is mainly due to two reasons. First, emotions have been studied according to psychological definitions used in most experimental set-ups i.e., as short-lived episodes in response to external stimuli. In so doing, it seemed unlikely that second-long reactions could have any significant impact on a process like radicalization that takes up months or years. Second, emotional reactions have mostly been considered along cognitivist parameters as intracranial affairs involving only mental processes inside individuals. For instance, Intergroup Emotion Theory applied to violent extremism reduces emotions to appraisals carried out while a specific self-categorization is active. Overall, emotions in radicalization were relegated to a marginal (uninteresting) role dwarfed by their ideological counterpart. My aim in this dissertation is to push emotions to the center stage of violent extremism and show how a situated take on affectivity helps both the examination of their role in radicalization processes and the design of affective counter-measures. Situated affectivity can be described as a series of (4E) approaches according to which affective states are not a matter of brain-bound processes but incorporate our bodily makeup and environmental structures to varying degrees. In a nutshell, human affectivity is embodied and embedded: Were not our body and our environment structured the way they are, we would not experience the emotional reactions we do. In my dissertation, I focus majorly on environment-structured emotions, i.e., scaffolded affectivity, and point out how individuals in radical online environments are prone to experience certain affective states conducive to radicalization. To do so, I leverage Jan Slaby’s work in which the author peruses two opposite directions of fit. On the one hand, we have user-resource interactions which describe cases in which affective experiences are initiated by individuals “reaching out” and manipulating a vast host of environmental structures to feel a particular way. Typical examples of user-resource interactions comprise visiting a friend to cheer one’s mood, listening to music to sustain one’s workout or arranging one’s office so as to create a calm study-oriented atmosphere. On the other hand, he introduces mind invasion to analyze cases in which affectivity is molded by aspects of the infrastructures and institutional contexts individuals inhabit. For instance, a new intern will gradually (and unconsciously) adapt to the affective interactions sanctioned by the company. My aim is to show how these two directions of fit can be fruitfully applied to describe the radicalization of different individuals. Alongside Slaby’s considerations, I will also integrate keen insights from other authors who recently elaborated on the ways in which human affectivity can be situated. Particular relevance will be granted to the diachronic development of people’s affectivity. Simply put, the ways in which individuals structure their affective experiences are not attributable just to the local layout and available resources at that particular moment. Rather, individuals are also the result of a complex history of interaction with their environment along which they have internalized specific habits and practices. In other words, one’s affective repertoire plays a major role in determining which kind of affective experiences individuals are likely to have. I will devote particular attention to examining how far-right and jihadist online groups – the two strands of extremism on which my analysis focuses – set up digital environments to promote the acquisition of radicalizing affective habits. As mentioned above one aim of my dissertation is to refine the analytical toolbox of situated affectivity. So far, researchers have concentrated on offline scenarios like religious places, concerts, marital couples and a vast gamut of physical objects. How affectivity is situated online has remained and still is uncharted territory. Only a few authors have made brilliant inroads in the analysis of internet-based affectivity. I contribute to these initial efforts and describe how internet-based affectivity is situated along different spatiotemporal parameters. First, online environments are characterized by hypersociality: the default scenario online comprises large amounts of users that cooperate in building affective experiences. Whether it is a “like”, a comment or a “share”, I argue that online affectivity involves small incremental contributions of loosely coordinated users thereby making the resulting experience highly distributed. Second, portable artifacts like smartphones render internet environments always available. Importantly, such availability is bidirectional. On the one hand, via smartphones, users can continuously manipulate a series of online resources and micromanage the contours of their affective life. On the other hand, social media platforms are equipped with intrusive personalization algorithms and notification systems that keep modulating the affective interactions of users. As a result, I maintain that online affective experiences keep switching between user-resource interaction and mind invasion moments. Third, in carving the frames of our online environment, personalization algorithms mine a great deal of data from our offline experiences. Put differently, what users see online is also the result of their geolocation, phone calls and purchases. Consequently, these algorithmic working mechanisms have in-depth effects on the ontological status of both affective experiences and radicalization processes. The cumulative thesis is composed of an introduction a conclusion and four chapters. Chapter 2 takes issue with existing approaches that promote a dichotomy between online and offline radicalization processes. In light of the personalization algorithms regulating users’ interactions on social media, the chapter proposes an integration of online and offline radicalization dynamics (and the consequent affective experiences) and claims that radicalization is better analyzed as an onlife phenomenon. Chapter 3 examines disgust promoted by online far-right groups as a radicalizing mind invading experience fueled by supposedly “funny” in-group affective practices (e.g., meme-making) on anonymous online platforms Chapter 4 uses far-right radicalization processes as a case study to argue that smartphone-based affectivity comprises a complex and continuous switch between user-resource interactions, mind shaping and mind invading moments. Chapter 5 argues for a reshaping in the design of counter-narrative campaigns. Instead of tackling the ideological stances of extremist propaganda, the chapter claims that experts should design affective counter-narratives pivoted on: 1) an embodied empathic engagement with former extremists; and 2) smartphone-based affective habits.
URL:	https://doi.org/10.48693/581 https://osnadocs.ub.uni-osnabrueck.de/handle/ds-2024091611571
Subject Keywords:	Radicalization; 4E Affectivity; Philosophy of Emotions; Internet Studies; Echo chambers
Issue Date:	16-Sep-2024
License name:	Attribution 3.0 Germany
License url:	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/de/
Type of publication:	Dissertation oder Habilitation [doctoralThesis]
Appears in Collections:	FB08 - E-Dissertationen

This item is licensed under a Creative Commons License