From ISIS to (US) Insurrection: Exploring the Sociology of Knowledge on Extremism and Political Violence through Struggles for Expert Authority

从伊斯兰国到（美国）叛乱：通过专家权威的斗争探索极端主义和政治暴力的知识社会学

• 批准号: ES/Y008324/1
• 负责人: Dylan Marshall
• 金额: $ 13.05万
• 依托单位: Aberystwyth University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FY008324%2F1
• 关键词: ISIS; US; Insurrection; Exploring; Sociology

As major recent events, from Brexit to COVID-19 have revealed, the social and political construction of 'experts' and their 'expert knowledge' is pivotal in shaping outcomes and ways of understanding global challenges. However, the centrality of the contested nature of expertise that these events brought to the fore have also been playing out in the study of 'terrorism'. The Islamic State group's (IS) declaration of a 'caliphate' in 2014 led to a gold rush to provide expertise on the group. It attracted a plethora of different fields, institutions, and individuals producing knowledge and claiming authority on IS (academia, policy institutions, private sector analysts, among many others). However, unlike many spaces of specialised knowledge (e.g., medicine), which have highly regulated fields to demarcate who the 'experts' are (and crucially, are not), the study of 'terrorism', 'radicalisation' and 'counterterrorism' does not maintain such institutionalised regulation. My research has revealed that there is no consistency amongst IS knowledge producers and elite consumers (e.g., government, media) as to who is an 'expert' and what attributes constitute expert authority. This subsequent competition for recognition as an 'expert' and its 'winners' in-turn shapes dominant knowledge on how the group is understood and should be responded to.Consequently, my research sociologically analyses this period and the conditions of terrorism expertise after 2014. This began with mapping the landscape of IS experts, proceeding to trace how deep historical debates over knowledge on Islam, the Middle East and political violence have shaped contemporary dynamics amongst expertise and their state, media, and wider consumers. This uncovered a broad spectrum of heavily disputed sources of authority that aspiring experts draw upon. Breaking new ground in the study of terrorism, it showed how this 'marketplace of expertise' produces diverse strategies pursued by experts to produce or maintain their authority, impacting whose expertise is utilised by practitioners, policy makers and the media. This research also explored how both physical and virtual spaces (such as conferences and Twitter) also shape the production and circulation of knowledge on IS, the membership of the expert community, and their relations amongst each other and with consumers.This fellowship's further research aims to extend this analysis of the terrorism 'expert marketplace' from the IS-era to account for the transition towards new terrorism threats in the Anglo-American context (far right). I will explore the processes by which another wave of aspiring experts emerged fulfil a demand to understand the far right, and how established expertise have responded to a changing landscape of consumer demands amid shifting political conditions shaping the framing of this threat. By introducing new findings into my existing analysis and preparing multiple publications based on this collective research, this fellowship will develop and communicate new insights into how the West understands contemporary political violence. As an analysis of expertise within a major, contentious global challenge, it further contributes towards understanding ongoing change in the function and politics of expertise at-large.

从英国脱欧到COVID-19的近期重大事件表明，“专家”及其“专业知识”的社会和政治建设在塑造理解全球挑战的结果和方式方面至关重要。然而，这些事件所凸显的专业知识的争议性质的中心地位也在“恐怖主义”的研究中发挥了作用。伊斯兰国组织（IS）在2014年宣布成立“哈里发国”，引发了一场为该组织提供专业知识的淘金热。它吸引了大量不同领域、机构和个人（学术界、政策机构、私营部门分析师等），这些人在信息系统方面产生了知识并声称具有权威。然而，与许多专业知识空间不同（例如，医学），有高度管制的领域来划分谁是“专家”（关键的是，不是），“恐怖主义”，“激进化”和“反恐”的研究并没有保持这种制度化的监管。我的研究表明，IS知识生产者和精英消费者之间没有一致性（例如，政府，媒体），谁是“专家”，什么属性构成专家权威。这随后的竞争承认作为一个“专家”和它的“赢家”反过来形状的主导知识，该集团是如何理解和应作出回应。因此，我的研究社会学分析这一时期和2014年后的恐怖主义专业知识的条件。这开始于绘制IS专家的景观，继续追踪关于伊斯兰教，中东和政治暴力知识的深刻历史辩论如何塑造了专业知识及其国家，媒体和更广泛的消费者之间的当代动态。这揭示了有抱负的专家所借鉴的广泛的、备受争议的权威来源。它在恐怖主义研究中开辟了新天地，展示了这种“专业知识市场”如何产生专家为产生或维持其权威而采取的各种策略，影响了从业人员，政策制定者和媒体利用的专业知识。这项研究还探讨了物理和虚拟空间如何（如会议和推特）也影响着信息系统知识的产生和传播、专家群体的成员、以及他们彼此之间以及与消费者之间的关系。该奖学金的进一步研究旨在将对恐怖主义“专家市场”的分析从IS-在英美背景下（最右边）向新的恐怖主义威胁过渡的时代。我将探讨另一波有抱负的专家出现的过程，以满足了解极右翼的需求，以及在不断变化的政治条件下，既定的专业知识如何应对不断变化的消费者需求。通过将新的发现引入我现有的分析，并根据这项集体研究准备多个出版物，这项研究将发展和交流西方如何理解当代政治暴力的新见解。作为一个主要的，有争议的全球性挑战中的专业知识的分析，它进一步有助于了解目前的变化，在功能和政治的专业知识。