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The Emergence of 'Extremism' and 'Radicalisation'

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The Emergence of 'Extremism' and 'Radicalisation' The Emergence of ‘Extremism’ and ‘Radicalisation’: An investigation into the discursive conditions that have enabled UK counter-terrorism strategy to focus on ‘radicalisation’ and ‘extremism’, and a theorisation of the impact of this focus From the outset, it is important that I state that my intention for this research is that it support Government efforts to counter political violence. I recognise that efforts to counter so-called ‘extremism’ and ‘radicalisation’ that are critiqued here have developed in response to very real acts of political violence. It is, however, my contention that these efforts are counterproductive and actually create real mechanisms by which violence is promoted rather than prevented. It is my hope that policymakers will learn from the work that is carried out here and that this will contribute to a more considered approach to reducing political violence than has been seen over the last decade. Supervisor: Dr John O’Regan Department of Culture, Communication and Media UCL Institute of Education Intended Award: PhD Field of Study: Critical Realism and Critical Discourse Analysis I, Rob Faure Walker confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 1 Abstract Prompted by Muslim children reporting their fear of the PREVENT Counter-Terrorism Strategy, this thesis develops a Critical Realist approach to critical discourse analysis (CDA) to describe the violent discourse of ‘radicalisation’ and ‘extremism’ (RadEx) from which PREVENT has emerged. RadEx describes the increase in the usage of ‘radicalisation’ and ‘extremism’ in British political discourse since the 1970s and how the words became progressively synonymous with violence between 2009 and 2014. It is theorised that RadEx not only suppresses dissent, but also has the capacity to promote violence. The analysis of parliamentary texts shows that RadEx has emerged from earlier colonialist discourses and the loss of parliamentary calculus, a genre of parliamentary discourse that moderated oppressive policy by the threat that it might solicit the emergence of ‘radicalisation’ and ‘extremism’. Aligned with Laclau and Mouffe’s socialist strategy, parliamentary calculus led left-wing politicians to embrace opposition and to use parliamentary calculus and the threat of coming to power to moderate the policy of the ruling party. New Labour’s aspiration to be in power is shown to have been an abandonment of this previous socialist strategy and to have undermined parliamentary calculus. The discursive change that this precipitates in relation to RadEx is theorised in the semiotic helix. As well as contributing to an understanding of the emergence of RadEx, the semiotic helix also contributes to understanding of discursive change over time more generally. Both Dialectical Critical Realism and metaReality are used to explore how RadEx might be surmounted and it is theorised that the Government’s recent expansion of counter-extremism strategy can and should be contested. 2 Impact Statement This thesis develops a Critical Realist approach to CDA that seeks to develop upon the work of Norman Fairclough in this area (N. Fairclough, 2000a, 2000b, 2003, 2010, 2013, 2015; N. Fairclough, Jessop, & Sayer, 2007). Roy Bhaskar, the father of Critical Realism, has called for such a development in his work (Bhaskar, 2002, p. 95, 2016a, p. 34) and this thesis is in part a response to that call. It is my hope that the Critical Realist theorisation of Prevent that is carried out in this thesis can make a contribution to the critique of Prevent while also adding to the work of CDA and its use as a methodological tool. An aspect of the theorisation that is presented is the description of the semiotic helix that enables an understanding of discursive change over time, something that I wish to argue has previously been neglected in Critical Realist approaches to CDA. That is not to say that no version of CDA explores discursive change over time and Reisigl and Wodak’s Discourse Historical Approach (DHA) (Reisigl & Wodak, 2016) explicitly looks at discourse in its historical context. However, the approach that is developed here and that is referred to as the Temporal Dialectical Relational Approach (TDRA) develops a specifically critical realist approach to CDA and in doing so offers the opportunity to develop a more explicit ontology for semiotic change over time. By developing an understanding of discourse in the context of time, the possibilities for transformative praxis that are theorised in the context of RadEx might be repeated for other discourses that we find ourselves trapped in. In an age of neoliberal hegemony, this offers the possibility that we might transcend the crises precipitated by the suffocating embrace of ‘growth’, ‘the market’ and other recent discursive phenomena that deny our agency. This work has been published as a book chapter (Faure Walker, 2018a), articles (Faure Walker, 2017a, 2017b, 2018c), has supported an edited collection of articles on PREVENT (Fernandez, Faure Walker, & Younis, 2018) and I have two articles currently being peer reviewed. This thesis has also supported my lobbying against the expansion of the PREVENT Strategy and government efforts to counter ‘extremism’ and ‘radicalisation’. This lobbying has taken a number of forms: - acting as an expert witness for a local government scrutiny committee into PREVENT - supporting NGOs in writing reports that challenge PREVENT - providing evidence to critics of PREVENT as an invited speaker to international roundtable discussions that have included senior UN officials - individual meetings with senior civil servants working on PREVENT and counter- extremism at The Home Office, The Office for Security and Counter Terrorism (OSCT) and The Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU) 3 - providing information and support to journalists that has led to a number of articles in the national press that have raised awareness of this controversial agenda - writing and coordinating open letters calling for a review of PREVENT which have been counter-signed by hundreds of academics - providing published evidence in support of an independent review of PREVENT to parliamentary committees - providing legal advice to ongoing civil cases - running workshops to support those impacted by PREVENT Much of this work has been supported via the PREVENT Digest website and newsletter that I have developed and managed alongside writing my thesis. The PREVENT Digest provides a hub for academics, journalists and private citizens impacted by PREVENT. I am frequently told by fellow academics that the monthly summary that I email subscribers to the website has maintained their interest in the topic and has resulted in their continued production of critical literature on PREVENT and counter-extremism. My vocal opposition to PREVENT that has been enabled by this thesis has also supported my role as a teacher by repairing relationships with Muslim students who had previously been silenced by PREVENT, the knowledge that I was also a critic of PREVENT giving them the confidence to speak out again. My professional identity has been further supported by this thesis as the laminated ontology that it explores affords me the possibility of fulfilling my professional duty to follow PREVENT while also lobbying against it in the ways described above. From a Critical Realist perspective, the pulse of freedom and metaReality demanded that I struggle against PREVENT, my being depends on it and this thesis is part of this struggle. Addendum Two hours after the draft of this thesis that was due to be examined was sent to the printers, the Government announced that a review of PREVENT was to be written into the Counter- Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019. The reviewer is due to be appointed in August 2019. 4 Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................. 2 Impact Statement .............................................................................................................. 3 Addendum ..................................................................................................................... 4 Contents ............................................................................................................................ 5 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 1 - Introduction ..................................................................................................... 8 1.1. Rationale ................................................................................................................. 9 1.2. Aim and Research Questions ................................................................................ 14 1.3.Counter-terrorism after 9/11 and the two versions of PREVENT ............................ 16 1.4.The Trojan Horse Affair and the PREVENT duty .................................................... 24 1.5.Key Terms and Concepts ....................................................................................... 28 Chapter 2 - Literature Review .......................................................................................... 36 2.1.Terrorism Studies (Critical and Orthodox) .............................................................. 36 2.2.Literature on ‘radicalisation’ and
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