Disenchantments: counterterror narratives and conviviality

Drawing on recent research into Australian community perspectives on radicalisation, extremism and terrorism, this article adopts a critical terrorism studies approach in considering the orientation and engagement strategies of counterterror narratives in multicultural societies. Drawing in part on primary research conducted in 2011 with a national sample of Australian community participants, theoretical work on multicultures and conviviality is used as a key lens through which to think through issues surrounding counterterror narrative discourses, their impacts and their aftermaths: which are heard, which aren’t and what stories have yet to be told. What do counterterror narratives’ current trajectories and limits tell us about countering violent extremist futures?