Paper presenters
- Henriette Frees Esholdt: “Ethnography at the edge: A confessional tale of methodological challenges countered when relying on fieldwork to investigate violence-promoting Islamist extremism
- Ümit Necef: “A terrorist and a researcher in a prison. Phenomenological reflections”
- Tine Wilchen Christensen: “Former right-wing extremists’ continued struggle for self-transformation after an exit program”
- Uzair Ahmed: Living research
Abstracts
Ethnography at the Edge: A confessional tale of methodological challenges encountered when relying on fieldwork to investigate violence-promoting Islamist extremism
Henriette Frees Esholdt, Lund University
This paper accepts Jeff Ferrell’s and Mark Hamm’s (1998) invitation to ethnographers of crime and deviance in Ethnography at the Edge to be inspired by moments of edgework, and is a confessional tale (Van Maanen, 1988) of the methodological challenges of investigating violence-promoting Islamist extremism (VPIE) relying on fieldwork.
Due to warnings about going directly to the source, and due to the methodological challenges of accessing VPIE environments and generating primary first-hand data on individuals who regard engagement in Jihad and violent defence of Islam as a central aspect of being practising Muslims, the research project discussed in this paper takes another point of departure. It turns its attention to primary data from a second-hand source, e.g. family members, friends and police officers, who have experience with young people who are active in, have been active in or are at risk of getting involved in VPIE.
However, it turns out that these groups, too, are neither easily nor safely accessed. Thus, the paper describes the point where the researcher realizes that a safe, clearly structured step-by-step methodological approach does not at all suit this research area. Instead, the researcher has to move beyond the edge and be willing to take risks in the search for relevant informants. Furthermore, the paper expands the use of the term ‘edgework’, as it is used to describe not only risk-taking experiences, but also the experience of being at the edge of conducting ethical and unethical research, being a researcher and being a police informer.
A Terrorist and a Researcher in a Prison. Phenomenological reflections
M. Ümit Necef, University of Southern Denmark
This paper will present an analysis of two recorded interviews with a person sentenced to seven years in jail in 2016 for having gone to Syria to fight for Islamic State (IS). The interviews are a part of a project aiming to shed light on the reasons behind why some Danish Muslims are attracted to IS. Moreover, the inmate’s three poems and an open letter to the Danes will be analyzed. The author visited the inmate four times and has spent approximately fourteen hours with him.
The paper will also present moods, feelings and reflections of a researcher and former left-wing extremist during the visits. Taking inspiration from Lifeworld Method (Bech 2013: 108) the author concedes that he must bracket any preconceptions regarding Islamist terrorism, but does not deny he has them. He also acknowledges that he has to establish a distance from his preconceptions stemming from his experiences in left-wing extremism in Turkey in the 1970’s. At different points during the meetings with the IS-member the author felt a spectrum of feelings such as fear, insecurity, anger, pity and “fatherly” solicitude, and he believes that these feelings and moods have coloured his research. However, he maintains that though researchers cannot escape dependence on moods and feelings in conducting research, they can use them in a constructive way. Moreover, comparing different kinds of extremisms can lead to a deeper understanding of violence promoting ideologies as such.
Former right-wing extremists' continued struggle
Tina Wilchen Christensen, Independant researcher/Humanculture.dk
This paper discusses the identity formation process former right wing extremists go through, during and especially after being involved in an exit program for those leaving right wing extremist environments.
Based on an ethnographic investigation (and practice theoretical approach), the paper argues that participation in culturally defined worlds – such as the extremist right - make participants develops ‘sensitivities and sensibilities’. This enables them to engage in social actions, gain a position and develop a correlated identity, but it is also the reason why it can be very demanding for the individual to leave an extremist environment. Perceived from the position of former right wing extremists, the article considers the challenges involved in (re)integrating in society for people stigmatized by a criminal and extremist past.
It explores how individuals leaving a right wing extremist group handle themselves in a new world when their embodied knowledge and habits of responding are no longer appropriate and investigates the many aspect individuals struggle with years after their engagement, when they do not know who to become and how to act.
Living research
Uzair Ahmed, Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo
The issue of identity, which is often viewed as important for western Muslims, is becoming more sectarian in nature. The civil wars between self-defined Sunni and Shia groups in Iraq and Syria have had an impact on Europe, and in particular European Muslims. A few of these Muslims have joined civil wars in countries such as Iraq and Syria. Moreover, sectarian bigotry and violence has also occurred in Europe. In 2012, a Shia imam died in Belgium, in an arson attack on a mosque conducted by a Salafist and Britain witnessed an episode of Muslim sectarian violence in 2013. This paper examines construction and preservation of sectarian –Sunni and Shia – identities and relations amongst Norwegian Muslim Men, with a particular focus on the role of sectarianism in the radicalization process leading to violent extremism. An analysis of data collected, so far, through qualitative field research, in 2015 and 2018, within the framework provided by Framing Theory, demonstrate that the most plausible explanatory causes for understanding adoption of hostile sectarian identities and relations amongst the respondents are outreach by and intensive socialization with adherents of hostile sectarian frames. However, identity construction is a complex process in which other factors may also play a significant role. The findings, so far, highlight a varying role of sectarianism in the radicalization process of Norwegian Muslims.