Youth violence and radicalization: a theoretical and conceptual analysis

Saeed, Yasir (2017) Youth violence and radicalization: a theoretical and conceptual analysis. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

Most of the theories on youth violence and radicalization focus on Western youth. It has been a challenge for researchers to link youth these theories to Orient. Edward Said acknowledged the biasness of analyzing these theories from specific lens by introducing the radical notions of Orientalism and Occidentalism. Orientalism is motivated by the suffering of gathering the information about countries, peoples and cultures of the Orient. Occidentalism is a counter-field of research which can be developed in the Orient in order to study the West from a non-Western world point of view. Said (1978) considered these differences between East and West as imaginative geographies. This paper interprets the youth violence and radicalization thesis as a sweeping caricature shot through Orientalist imaginaries. The culture of violence argument is considered to invoke imaginative geographies that problematically erase the contingency, fluidity and interconnectedness of the violent. Moreover, factors at different levels of social organization are also described in detailed in order to understand the underlying situation of youth violence and radicalization. However, in Orient, the focus has almost exclusively been on the use of Islam as a political ideology that justifies and promotes radicalization and violence in society. While other manifestations of the problem also exist (such as organized crime, and gangs), it is this strand that remains most critical to Occident interests. It is concluded that the factors outlined in the paper may vary according to the context, experience and situation of youth living in East and West. But there are differences in perspectives in understanding youth violence and radicalization in East and West.

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