Islamist and nativist reactionary radicalisation in Europe

In this talk, the term “radicalisation” is discussed as a process that appears to be a defensive and reactionary response of various individuals suffering from social, economic, and political forms of exclusion, subordination, alienation, humiliation, and isolation. To that effect, the talk challenges the mainstream understanding of radicalisation. In doing so, the work concentrates on the elaboration of reactionary radicalisation processes of self‐identified Muslim youth and self‐identified native youth residing in Europe. The main reason behind the selection of these two groups is the assumption that both groups are co‐radicalizing each other in the contemporary world that is defined by the ascendance of a civilizational political discourse since the war in the Balkans in the 1990s. Based on the findings of in‐depth interviews conducted with youngsters from both groups in Belgium, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, the work demonstrates that the main drivers of the radicalisation processes of these two groups cannot be explicated through the reproduction of civilizational, cultural, and religious differences. Instead, the drivers of radicalisation for both groups are very identical as they are both socio‐economically, politically, and psychologically deprived of certain elements constrained by the flows of globalization and dominant forms of neo‐liberal governance.

Ayhan Kaya is Professor of Politics and Jean Monnet Chair of European Politics of Interculturalism at the Department of International Relations, Istanbul Bilgi University; Director of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence; and a member of the Science Academy, Turkey. He is currently European Research Council Advanced Grant holder (ERC AdG, 2019-2024). He received his PhD and MA degrees at the University of Warwick, England. Kaya was previously a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, Florence, Italy, and adjunct lecturer at the New York University, Florence in 2016-2017. He previously worked and taught at the European University Viadrina as Aziz Nesin Chair in 2013, and at Malmö University, Sweden as the Willy Brandt Chair in 2011. He is specialised on European identities, Euro-Turks in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, Circassian diaspora in Turkey, the construction and articulation of modern transnational identities, refugee studies in Turkey, conventional and nonconventional forms of political participation in Turkey, and the rise of populist movements in the EU. His recent manuscript is Populism and Heritage in Europe. Lost in Diversity and Unity (London Routledge, 2019). His recent edited volume is Memory in European Populism (London Routledge, 2019, with Chiara de Cesari). Some of his books are Turkish Origin Migrants and their Descendants Hyphenated Identities in Transnational Space (Palgrave, 2018), Europeanization and Tolerance in Turkey (London Palgrave, 2013); Islam, Migration and Integration The Age of Securitization (London Palgrave, 2012); Contemporary Migrations in Turkey Integration or Return (Istanbul Bilgi University Press, 2015, in Turkish, co-edited with Murat Erdoğan), Belgian-Turks, Brussels King Baudouin Foundation, 2008, co-written with Ferhat Kentel), Euro-Turks A Bridge or a Breach between Turkey and the EU (Brussels CEPS Publications, 2005, co-written with Ferhat Kentel, Turkish version by Bilgi University); wrote another book titled Sicher in Kreuzberg Constructing Diasporas, published in two languages, English (Bielefeld Transkript verlag, 2001) and Turkish (Istanbul Büke Yayınları, 2000).