Stories of Jihadism. The radicalisation process and its plausibility

The “plausibility” of the jihadist mission is the focus of the analysis presented in this contribution, in which we will analyse some jihadi “stories” in the light of a precise theoretical frame and of a perspective that we define as ecological. According to this approach, which was inspired by Bateson (1977) and based on Latour’s Actor-Network Theory (1998; 2005) as well as on the theories of complexity (Morin, 2001), the ideas, or world visions, such as the “radical” ones considered here, do not exist in an autonomous and self-referencing sphere, like fixed and permanent elements, predetermined for ever more. Their “story”, like their ability to put their beliefs into practice for their actions, is connected to relating to people, organisations, players and symbolic and material resources to which they manage to bind themselves and which in turn they help to spread. During this process, these same ideas, following unavoidable adjustments and “translations” which modify and sometimes also betray their meanings, undergo a strengthening process by “thickening”, becoming so dense that they “become a reality”. Thus events or phenomena are not (a priori) plausible, but become so, or, in other words, “facts”, objects, whole “worlds” progressively turn into reality (Latour, 1998). Regarding the topic under analysis here, therefore, we intend to discuss radicalisation as a process that is not plausible from the outset, but becomes so, the more “radical” visions of the world take shape and become real, acquiring “sense” and “plausibility” in the eyes of a growing number of people.