Narratives on Violent Groups: Reconciling the Contentious Politics and Interactionist Paradigms? I

Abstract

Research on political violence and radicalization in both the English and French-speaking worlds has recently seen the emergence of Social Movement Studies interpretations. However, one has been influenced by the contentious politics paradigm centered around contextualizing violence in order to understand the broader political processes, the reciprocal adaptations of the repertoires of action and the construction of collective identity. While the other has seen the emergence of the interactionist paradigm. While the contentious politics approach seeks to identify processes and dynamics that can help us explain causal links, the interactionist approach focuses on the sequences of actions in situ and is more attentive to the lived experiences of actors and their contingency. Our Panel seeks to engage a discussion surrounding these two approaches in the study of political violence and radicalization, in order to identify innovative ways to interpret these phenomena.

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