The Language Game: The Relationship between Radicalization and Extremism

Abstract One might assume that the product of radicalization as a process is a radical, or, if one is thinking about a school of thought, radicalism. Yet within contemporary terrorism discourse, radicalization is often understood to produce not radicals and radicalism but extremists and extremism. How and why has this entanglement between radicalization and extremism developed and with what impacts? This chapter explores these questions through the prism of terrorism and national security discourse since 9/11. It reviews definitional and conceptual issues concerning radicalization and extremism, drawing on Wittgenstein’s concept of the language game. It then discusses distinguishing between radicalization and extremism with reference to the concepts of distality, transformation, and intensity. Finally, it explores whether the entanglement of radicalization and extremism is related to their capacity to generate social harms and whether how radicalization and extremism are defined can itself constitute a form of epistemic harm.<p></p>