Newsletter of the ASA Theory Section

Religion, Politics, and Globalization, 2011

The human bombs of today's terrorism are self-exploders. I do not refer to selfexploder lightly. Exploding the self is the self-destruction of one's intimate interior being, one's own journeys of becoming, the existential being-ness through which each of us (in manifoldly different cultural ways) experiences and knows worlds, inside one's self, outside one's self. Since self comes into existence and is formed and forming through relating to otherness, the self is a social being. To self-explode self is then a social act, a social practice, one intended to act on the world through one's own self-destruction. As social practice, self-explosion radiates outwards, into sociality, into its fragmentation, disruption, dismemberment. As social practice, self-exploding leads directly to the potentiality of selfsacrifi ce in today's world. Self-sacrifi ce indexes the voluntary giving of one's life for otherness-protecting this, saving this, bringing this into existence through self-destruction. The giving of one's self to otherness no less indexes altruism (Gambetta 2005: 259), the gift of devotion-to a cause, to a belief, to others, and on. Therefore, and I emphasize this connectivity, the social giving of one's self to otherness as self-sacrifi ce often has cosmic implications when selfness and otherness in relation to one another are comprehended as integral to worldmaking. The creation of worlds through the destruction of worlds. This is the linkage I want to explore through the practice of self-exploding in and from the Middle East by considering, towards the end of this chapter, the self-exploder as a double sacrifi ce-of the enemy other and of the (purifi ed and consecrated) self, and the implications of this for cosmic destruction and creation.

The recent massacre of 44 Special Forces officers in the Philippines leads to a reflection on the psychological underpinnings. The author discusses the need for a Messiah, the characteristics of radical leaders, the nature of radical movements and the psychoanalytic underpinnings. This leads to a policy proposal that requires the symbiosis of the source of the violent acts with wisdom contemplation that together lead to a proposal of solution.

Proceedings of the Annual Conference of The …, 2006

To highlight some of the methodological limitations, this paper presents a critical analysis of empirical studies on suicide terrorism which apply Durkheim’s typology of altruistic suicide. The paper will then sketch an onging study of suicide terrorism that aims to go beyond the current ‘Western’ frameworks of understanding. The paper will show how, in trying to understand suicide terrorism, the complications associated with finding reliable and valid data on the subject are compounded by the way in which researchers and intelligence analysts fail to address the limitations of their methodology. The paper argues that data about suicide terrorism must be analysed within an explicit epistemological framework. It further argues that suicide terrorism must be understood in terms of social context, and in context of the researcher/analyst as a situated being, whose social location and culture affect the way in which they interpret data. The paper suggests that sociological studies in the areas of altruism, community identities, and the sociology of suicide may provide insight into understanding suicide terrorism as a social process. This framework represents an attempt to break down the process of ‘otherness’ that currently limits our understanding of terrorism.

Howard J Crim Justice, 2013

Drawing on news reports, existing datasets and previous scholarly research, The Myth of Martyrdom offers an alternative interpretation to what drives suicide terrorists. The main argument expressed throughout the book is that all suicide terrorists primarily aim to end their own lives. Lankford writes that: 'for more than a decade, the experts have gotten it wrong' (p.83) -he dismisses the notion of radicalisation and argues, instead, that suicidal individuals seek out terrorist organisations to realise their suicidal ideations in a socially-approved form of suicide. In eight chapters, Lankford uses case studies of suicide bombers, airplane hijackers and rampage shooters to illustrate that all engaged in these acts for reasons similar to those for suicide, including depression, anxiety, marital strife or professional failure.

Philosophical dualism implies that our thoughts shaped by mind and our understanding of the physical world based on empiricism are both real yet neither can be assimilated. The idealists challenge this distinction claiming that the physical world is inherently mental as anything empirical is an inter-subjective product of collective interpretation of the experience originating from our mind. The 'mind-body problem' also shapes knowledge creation claiming social science as value-laden and natural science as fact-driven. This paper critically examines the dichotomous postulation of fact and value which arguably separates social science from natural science. Tracing the origin of philosophical dualism and its many manifestations, the paper questions its utility and validity. It argues that any attempt to separate value from fact restricts the intellectual debate, rational inquiry, growth of knowledge and remains impossible to achieve particularly in the context of thick ethical concepts. Illustrating different peculiarities of meaning and how they are construed, the paper demonstrates the centrality of meaning and interpretation in social science inquiry validating that all 'facts' are subject to the gilding and staining with the colours of our own 'values'. Highlighting the descriptive and evaluative aspects of thick concepts in particular, the paper argues that both natural and social sciences are engaged in tracing the conceptual relations and any real difference between the two lies in the aims, nature and methods of inquiry and not in the alleged fact/value distinction. Exemplifying this arguments with the concept of terrorism the paper highlights how the evaluative and descriptive aspects of the concept of terrorism is stained corrupting our sensitivity. Rejecting the consequentialists' argument, the paper takes a deontological approach contending that achieving a global meaning of terrorism requires decoupling it from the concepts of war, religion, as well as a moral upgrade of war and holding both state and non-state actors committing the act of terrorism with equal spirit and force. By building a common ethos of reciprocity towards the act and the corresponding constitutive rules that emerges from, and are sustained by a web of social practices of the societies and the societies of states can only transform one men's terrorist to be regarded as everyman's terrorist. (356 words)

This paper deals with the subject of self-sacrifice from an interdisciplinary perspective. Using various examples from different cultures and periods of history it will present aspects of the phenomenon of violent self-sacrifice in combat or with the occasion of suicide terrorist attacks, currents and movements familiar with these techniques through history; its psychological, moral and social background and above all, their impact and perception on the suicide terrorist's own society. It also includes, from a general, theoretical point of view, a few methods and practices beneficial for fighting this phenomenon.

in R. Hefner, J. Hutchinson et al. (eds), Religions in Movement: The Local and the Global in Contemporary Faith Traditions, London - New York, Routledge, 2013, pp. 132-146 + final bibliography, 2013

Political Psychology, 2009

Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 2017

Mainstream social science has struggled to explain the appeal of suicide terrorism to so many Muslim youths, relying as it does on standard socio-economic indicators and research meant to identify suicidal tendencies. The existential emphasis is missing. This commentary is inspired by the work of clinical psychologist Erich Fromm (1900-1980) and his investigation of the social psychology of modernity, as well as how this intermingles with existential fears related to mortality (death-related fears) and the passage of time (the end of the world or apocalypse). Modernity, explained Fromm, makes one feel small, insignificant and isolated in the larger scheme of things. This demands a violent response, often involving self-sacrifice, to reassert the balance, which allows Islamists to take advantage of death-related anxieties and exaggerate the sense of confrontation with the world through apocalyptic prophecies. Current psychological research on death and studies of terrorism and religi...