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.     

THE SPATIO-TEMPORAL SYNCHRONIZATION OF PERIODIC MARKET-PLACES: A RE-EXAMINATION

Analyses of the locational and temporal spacing of periodic market-places have provided only partial confirmation of the hypothesis 'proximity in space implies separation in time.' The patterns, which are observed in almost all empirical studies, are explained here in terms of a simple avoidance rule constrained by the geometry of periodic market-place systems. The results of a series of simulations suggest that the constraints of geometry are such that only simple avoidance rules can be applied, and any more sophisticated rationale is therefore questionable.
Les études portant sur le degré de séparation spatiale et temporelle des places de marché périodique ne confirment que partiellement l' hypothése que proximité spatiale implique séparation dans le temps. Les effets observés dans presque toutes les études empiriques sont éxpliqués ici en terme d' une simple loi d' évitement, sous les contraintes de la géometrie du système des marchés périodiques. Les resultats d'une série d' analyses de simulations suggerent l' existence de contraintes géometriques telles que seules de simples lois d' evitement semblent opérationnelles. Ainsi, toute autre explication plus compliqué est remise en question.