Going All the Way: Politicizing, Polarizing, and Radicalizing Identity Offline and Online

Abstract

This essay conceptualizes radicalization as a collective process that evolves within the context of global, national, or local intergroup tensions. People do not radicalize on their own, but as part of a group in which a collective identity is developed. Some members of the group may take a radical activist route to promote or prevent social change. Their interactions with their opponents intensify, while their ideas and beliefs sharpen. In this essay, I propose an interpretative framework to analyze radicalizing collective identities. The framework departs from the notion that supranational processes shape and mold the micro level of (radicalizing) citizens' demands, the meso level of social movements and political parties, and the macro level of national political systems. The answer to questions such as who radicalizes, why people radicalize, and the forms radical action takes lies in the interaction of supranational processes, national political processes, and the context of political mobilization. It is argued that radicalizing identities are key in this process, no radicalization without identification!

The doors that culture opened: Parallels between social movement studies and social psychology

“…Even though proponents present them as primordial and essential, they are forever contested, changing, and fraught with tradeoffs (McGarry & Jasper, 2015). Van Stekelenburg (2014) finds that radicalization occurs through interactions with opponents, but only as mediated through collective identities that encourage radicalism. For the most part, however, I believe that psychologists have devoted less research to decision-making processes in social movements than to decisions in other settings or to other dimensions of protest, such as motivations.…”

“I don't really want to be associated with the self-righteous left extreme”: Disincentives to participation in collective action

“…The literature on engagement in conventional/moderate versus extreme/radical forms of collective action (e.g., Tausch et al, 2011;van Stekelenburg, 2014) has highlighted that decision making about actions is nuanced and strategic . Our study suggests that participative efficacy -the belief that one's individual contribution to the collective cause will make a difference (van Zomeren et al, 2013) -is unachievable if (some of) the group's actions are seen as illegitimate.…”

“…Activists can be delegitimised by outside groups and bystanders (Adair, 1996;Linden & Klandermans, 2006;Taylor & Raeburn, 1995), and some activists face the complex task of making themselves palatable to a bystander public (Louis, 2009;Stuart et al, 2013;Thomas & Louis, 2013, 2014. Activists can be aware of the beliefs that oppositional groups hold about them -referred to as meta-stereotypes -and can act to strategically confirm these stereotypes to outgroups (Klein & Azzi, 2001).…”

Acciones de participación social, identidad y emociones de estudiantes chilenos de una universidad privada

“…En cuanto a evidencias empíricas vinculadas a estos conceptos se ha encontrado una relación entre la ICP y el apoyo a protestas políticas en grupos étnicos (Wohl, King y Taylor, 2014). Otros autores han señalado que la politización es una fase más hacia la polarización y por consiguiente la radicalización del grupo, esto también resulta de interés para la acción colectiva debido a que, a mayor politización y polarización del grupo, mayor probabilidad de que se emprendan acciones colectivas radicales dirigidas a los opositores y la opinión pública para que tomen asuntos en sus demandas (Van Stekelenburg, 2014). Sin embargo, la evidencia no es definitiva, por ejemplo, se ha comprobado que la ICP puede predecir la acción política pacifista siempre que la angustia colectiva sea baja (Whol et al, 2014).…”