Why conventional wisdom on radicalization fails: the persistence of a failed discourse

Politicians, the media, and some academics are getting it wrong about radicalization. Relying on simple narratives to explain how an individual departs from point a (‘a good Muslim boy’) to point b (‘a suicide bomber’), too many recent contributions to academia rely on assumptions and ‘conventional wisdom’ rather than testable and falsifiable empirical research and methods. Through specific cases, this article seeks to demonstrate how the over‐simplification of ‘conventional wisdom’ privileges convenient political narratives over the complex realities of such situations. In light of this failure to account for reality, this article seeks to challenge current thinking on radicalization by exposing its limitations, as currently being used, as a meaningful basis and departure point for rigorous social science research. The article concludes by showing how the current persistence of this ‘conventional wisdom’ approach to radicalization ultimately betrays the normative political assumptions of those who insist on using this term, and how this adherence to ‘conventional wisdom’ now deprives radicalization from being a relevant and useful academic or policy discourse. This is because radicalization as an area for study has been corrupted by its instrumental political application.     

RECALIBRATING SOCIETY: THE POPULATION GEOGRAPHY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA IN 1881

The nominal census of British Columbia for 1881 provides the basis for this analysis of the population distribution and social structure of the province. The provincial distributions of whites, Chinese, and native peoples are mapped and discussed, as are the population geographies of three regions: the Lower Skeena/Nass, the Southwestern Plateau, and the lands around the Strait of Georgia. The essay concludes with a discussion of the social categories employed in the census and of the particular relations of society and space in late-19th-century British Columbia.
Le recensement nominal de la Colombie Britannique en 1881 est à la base de cette analyse de la distribution de la population et de la structure sociale de la province. Les distributions provinciales des blancs, des chinois, et des indigènes sont cartographiées er analysées de même que la géographie de la population de trois régions: le bas Skeena / Nass, le plâteau du sud-ouest, et les côtes du détroit de Georgie. L'essai se termine par une discussion des catégories sociales utilisées dans le recensement et des rapports société-espace en Colombie Britannique vers la fin du dix-neuviéme siékle.     

The garden city idea in Australia

Ebenezer Howard's Garden City idea occupies an important place in the history of British planning, and in various guises it made a significant international impact. A preliminary exploration of the history of the idea in Australia is attempted, focussing on its meaning as a schema for social reform and on its impact on the landscape. The first two ‘phases’ saw the rise of ‘garden city principles’ to describe a model house and garden suburbia which was to redeem urban Australia. In the 1920s these ‘town planning principles’ were used mainly to sell land, but in a fourth phase beginning in the early 1930s they were refined into neighbourhood planning ideas, combining with previously neglected concepts of the satellite town and green belt to approach more closely the original vision of a garden city. This reformist text emerged as town planning was finally accorded professional respectability; however, with the ambiguous exception of Canberra, the promise of neither has been realized.     

The One Nation Group: A Tory Approach to Backbench Politics and Organisation, 1950-55

The One Nation Group enjoys a mythic place in the history ofthe postwar Conservative Party. It has often been portrayedas being of extraordinary importance both for its early writings,One Nation (1950) and Change is Our Ally (1954), and for a behind-the-scenesparliamentary influence seen to exceed greatly that which wouldnormally be expected from a private dining group of ConservativeMPs. The group, with its firm association with ‘One Nation’Conservatism, has been seen to be at the fore of modernizingforces in the party in the early postwar years, and to haveplayed a pivotal role in the reshaping of Conservatism in thisperiod. This study examines the group via its publications,minutes of its weekly discussions, memoranda, and correspondence.These provide insight into the nature of backbench Conservatismand shed light upon the dynamics, activities, and beliefs ofa body that swiftly established itself as by far and away themost prestigious and respected of the unofficial Conservativeparliamentary groups. ¹I would like to acknowledge my debt to the following for givingfreely of their time in interview or correspondence for thisstudy: the late the Rt. Hon. the Lord Alport, TD, DL; the Rt.Hon. the Lord Carr of Hadley, FIC; the Rt. Hon. the Lord Gilmourof Craigmillar; the late Sir Gilbert Longden, MBE; and the lateJ. Enoch Powell, MBE; and two other sources who wished to remainanonymous. Stuart Ball, Nicholas Crowson, Dona Diani, and JohnRamsden have all read this article at various stages and offeredhelpful advice and criticism, and I would also like to thankJohn Barnes for advice when this project was in an earlier incarnation.     

INTRUSIVE BURIAL GROUPS IN THE LATE ROMAN CEMETERY AT LANKHILLS, WINCHESTER—A REASSESSMENT OF THE EVIDENCE1

This paper examines the evidence brought forward by the excavator to support his hypothesis that foreign ethnic groups were buried in the late Roman cemetery at Lankhills, Winchester, and that these groups are identifiable from their burial rites. The report is reassessed within the pattern of diversity which is the demonstrable norm of burial practice worldwide. The value of strongly theoretical explanations of funerary layout is questioned in the light of case-studies where historical sources add an otherwise unavailable dimension to the context of the known archaeological data.