The social construction of terrorism.

Abstract

I propose to discuss some of the social psychological aspects of the complex phenomenon of contemporary global international terrorism using the recently developed principles of discursive psychology. According to that point of view, the key to the psychological genesis of many social phenomena lies in the language and other symbolic systems with which they are described, thought about, and commented on and the projects that are created for dealing with them. In general, from the point of view of discursive psychology, any social phenomenon has two aspects. There is the pattern of actions performed by those involved, that is, their intended doings and sayings. Then there is the pattern of acts that are the socially significant meanings of the patterns of action, for the actor and for those to whom the acts are directed. Personal and collective interpretations are, not infrequently, different in some particular cases. Whose interpretations have hegemony is the topic of that branch of discursive psychology called positioning theory. How actions are interpreted as acts, it is argued, determines the subsequent events that follow from them.Acts of terrorism must be subjected to the same style of analysis and explanation as such simple social acts as the way people greet each other by If the then government of Afghanistan had declared war on the United States at 8 am EST on September 11, 2001, the attacks on New York and Washington would have been air raids.-Anonymous EU Representative

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