scholarly journals A Life-Course Analysis of Engagement in Violent Extremist Groups

2019 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoffer Carlsson ◽  
Amir Rostami ◽  
Hernan Mondani ◽  
Joakim Sturup ◽  
Jerzy Sarnecki ◽  
...  

AbstractIn this exploratory study, individuals’ processes of engagement in violent extremist groups are analysed by drawing from criminological life-course theory and narrative-based understandings of crime. Based on interviews with individuals who have participated in violent extremism, it is suggested that the process of engagement consists of three steps: (1) a weakening of informal social controls, followed by (2) an interaction with individuals in proximity to the group and (3) a stage of meaning-making in relation to the group and one’s identity, resulting in an individual’s willingness and capacity to engaging in the group’s activities, including violence. In future theorizing about processes of engagement in violent extremism, the meanings of age, and the life-course stages of late adolescence and emerging adulthood in particular, should be given analytic attention.

Author(s):  
Miriam Boeri

Life course theory focuses attention on the impact of history, timing, and important transitions in life trajectories. In this chapter, the life course analysis of boomer drug users reveals that drug trajectories were not developmental. Instead, they were discontinuous, interrupted phases dependent on social context and situations that changed over time. The chapter provides a closer inspection of the turning points into and out of drug use phases to better understand the causes of problematic drug use and what resources are needed to control it. In contrast to law enforcement and treatment professionals, who view problematic drug use as a lack of self-control, research finds that informal social control mechanisms are more important for maintaining or regaining control over drug use. Life course theory predicts that missing critical transitions in life, such as graduating from high school, leads to fewer informal social controls. The stories in this chapter reveal the negative impact of juvenile incarceration, which did not help anyone become drug free, but instead plunged youths into a criminal culture and broke their social bonds to mainstream social networks and access to informal social control mechanisms.


2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica McKenzie ◽  
Lene Arnett Jensen

Drawing from qualitative analyses of interviews, ethnographic data, and a review of interdisciplinary literature, this manuscript puts forth a theory of moral life course narratives among U.S. evangelical and mainline Protestants. This theory delineates the relationship between religious worldviews and conceptions of moral behaviors, and the manner in which these worldviews and attendant moral conceptions change across the life course for community members. Grounded theory analyses of 32 participants’ divinity-based moral discourses were interpreted in conjunction with their worldviews, as well as church, home, and school contexts. Analyses indicated that evangelical children highlighted their moral transgressions because they regarded themselves as still quite close to a sinful birth. Evangelical adults, who had been saved and were moving toward God, temporally and spiritually distanced themselves from the morally wrong deeds of their youth. Meanwhile, mainline children and adolescents rarely reasoned about their moral experiences in terms of divinity. This finding is understood in light of their church’s emphasis on developing an individualized relationship with God over time. The study and resultant theory elaborate cultural constructions and transmissions of moral life course narratives that, in turn, provide a framework for understanding when, why, and how divinity enters into moral meaning making for cultural community members. We conclude by advocating for theoretical, methodological, and analytical approaches that expose the cultural nature of developmentally dynamic moral selves.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 14-33
Author(s):  
Shauna A. Morimoto

This article draws on qualitative data of U.S. high school students considering their place in the adult world; the purpose is to investigate Jeffrey Arnett’s (2000) concept of “emerging adulthood” as a new stage of life course. Drawing on interviews and observational data collected around the time when Arnett’s notion of emerging adulthood started to take hold, I use intersectional interpretive lens in order to highlight how race and gender construct emerging adulthood as high school students move out of adolescence. I consider Arnett’s thesis twofold. First, when emerging adulthood is examined intersectionally, young people reveal that – rather than being distinct periods that can simply be prolonged, delayed, or even reached – life stages are fluid and constantly in flux. Second, since efforts to mitigate against uncertain futures characterizes the Millennial generation, I argue that the process of guarding against uncertainty reorders, questions or reconfigures the characteristics and stages that conventionally serve as markers of life course. I conclude that the identity exploration, indecision, and insecurity associated with emerging adulthood can also be understood as related to how the youth reveal and reshape the life course intersectionally.


2020 ◽  
pp. 104973232097820
Author(s):  
Leslie A. McCallum ◽  
Ramona Alaggia

Despite the high percentage of adults living with anorexia nervosa (AN) over the life course, there is limited understanding of what it means to be living with AN in midlife when the majority of research has focused on adolescents and young adults. As such, clinical practice for individuals in midlife is informed by a severe and enduring AN (SE-AN) framework, which assumes that recovery is not necessarily feasible past young adulthood. This study used constructivist grounded theory methodology to understand the experiences of adults in midlife living with AN. In-depth analyses of 19 participant narratives in midlife show that individuals face barriers to seeking help or remaining in recovery; however, midlife can also act as a significant catalyst toward recovery. Subsequently, there is merit in revisiting the utility of the SE-AN framework in the context of life course theory and exploring resilience-informed approaches in supporting recovery from AN.


2020 ◽  
pp. 104225872094012
Author(s):  
Dilani Jayawarna ◽  
Susan Marlow ◽  
Janine Swail

Using a gendered household analysis, we explore the extent to which operating a business upon a flexible basis at specific times in the life course impacts upon an entrepreneur’s exit from their business. Drawing upon UK data and a discrete-time event history model to conduct a life course analysis, we find women caring for young children are more likely to exit given limited returns related to incompatible demands between the time required to generate sufficient returns and caring demands. Limited returns however, were not significant to continuation rates if a male partner contributed a compensatory household income.


Author(s):  
Kenneth F. Ferraro

Life course analysis prioritizes the long view of aging: study aging as a process from embryo to death and how the timing of events and exposures shapes those lives. The act of analyzing the life course (or life span) highlights an intellectual tension in the field that has existed for decades: Is gerontology the study of older organisms or how those organisms age? Although human social services are often organized by age groups, science is better off studying the aging process—how the organism became older. In humans and animals, the experience of aging varies by historical time and place. Three vantage points for life course analysis are specified: the study of (1) early origins, (2) centenarians, and (3) family lineage.


Author(s):  
David Wood ◽  
Tara Crapnell ◽  
Lynette Lau ◽  
Ashley Bennett ◽  
Debra Lotstein ◽  
...  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document