Social Networks and Identity Formation as Pull Factors of Jihadist Radicalisation in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland (RPSI)

Financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation
Duration: 1. 4. 2022 - 31. 3. 2026

Project manager: Prof. Dr. Antonius Liedhegener
Research staff: Dr. Johannes Saal, Dr. Jürgen Endres

Summary

Political Radicalization has become a challenge to open societies. Research on terrorism and radicalisation made much progress in recent years. In particular, there is a recent shift to quantitative and mixed-method approaches to investigate the traits of and pathways to (religious) terrorism. Most important was a change in the empirical research on terrorism from why to how. New relational approaches readdress the question of mechanisms able to explain processes of radicalisation and political violence. Especially the use of social network analysis (SNA) became particular promising. This research project aims to contribute to the emerging field of SNA in the study of religious terrorism by applying Exponential Random Graph Models and Stochastic Actor Oriented Models that allow to statistically analyse the multi-level endogenous and exogenous effects leading to Jihadist radicalisation in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.

The research project seeks to test the assumption that Jihadist radicalisation results from the combined effect of network closure and identity transformation within these networks. It wants to investigate the research question if individuals convert from pietist and political non-violent forms of Salafism to militant Jihadism that legitimizes and promotes political violence because of a closure of their social network and a change in their social identity while affiliating with the Jihadist milieu. The general hypothesis generated from Economics of Religion, Social Capital and Social Identity Theory is that the conjuncture of both processes – network closure and identity transformation – will substantially raise the probability of radicalisation. To test the identity transformation argument, the project also addresses questions of religious content. A detailed study of influential preachers and their proposal of an exclusive and antagonistic social identity to their followers is essential to relate networks and their changes to processes of social identity transformation.

By using court records as primary source, the project will produce a new consistent data base on cases of Jihadist radicalisation in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, a qualitative content analysis of Salafist preachers' sermons, and an elaborate SNA based on statistical models. The project will contribute substantially to terrorism research and the study of the correlation between social networks and religious identity, belief, and practice in general. Scientifically it will generate better data on religious radicalisation and a new approach to explain radicalisation as a group effect at the meso-level empirically. The broader public in Austria, Germany and Switzerland can profit from in-depth information on processes of radicalisation among Muslims for adjusting public policy programs to prevent and counter religious extremism and political violence.