This article proposes a novel theoretical framework for (re)conceptualising the process(es) of radicalisation. Whilst the concept of radicalisation, as a social and psychological process, has been ubiquitous within recent popular, political, and policy discourse, it remains relatively immature and intangible. Indeed, it has received inadequate theoretical or conceptual consideration. In an attempt to rectify this, the current paper proposes a novel, dynamic, conceptual framework anchored in the reciprocal determinism approach articulated by Bandura [i].
This novel framework recognises and articulates the inherently multicausal dynamics of what is known as radicalisation. In proposing this framework, this article seeks to: a) move the field beyond the static identification of the antecedents approach that has guided much of the research examining radicalisation, and in doing so, b) provide a more comprehensive, empirically evidenced, and dynamic, theoretical grounding that has the potential to offer greater explanatory value for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers.
- Albert Bandura, ‘The Self System in Reciprocal Determinism’, American Psychologist 33, no. 4 (1978): 344–58.
