Research team

Goals of the project

For some time now, the concept of radicalism has become popular in the context of discussions of the behavior of individuals and social groups. This is reflected in the social debate and has its consequences in the approach to the problems and threats of the modern world. Observing social life, one can notice an increase in tensions caused by difficult, crisis situations and events (including terrorist attacks, fundamentalism, nationalist, religious and racial incidents, gender discrimination, etc.). These tensions often translate into extreme attitudes toward individuals or entire social groups. The result is a polarization of public sentiment often leading to radical behavior, including tendencies toward extremism. Nevertheless, the concepts of radicalism and radicalization do not have sharp semantic boundaries. Thus, on the ground of the literature on the subject one can see the need to organize the ways of defining and interpreting them. In addition, the issue of effective methods of measuring the propensity to radical behavior using accurate and reliable tools is an important problem.

Given the above, the team's goal is to undertake a consideration of the issues of radicalism and radicalization, both from a theoretical and empirical perspective. On the level of theoretical research, the team is carrying out a systematic review (scoping review) aimed at identifying fields of knowledge and ignorance regarding radicalism and radicalization. Empirical research covers the issue of radicalism among adolescents and young adults, as groups particularly prone to political mobilization, including radicalization. These activities concern the production of social practices identified as the pedagogies of youth radicalism.