Terrorism as «political world». Identity, strategy, values​​: notes for a cultural analysis of terrorism

This paper examines some explanations of the logic of terrorism, which, respectively, assign a central role to individual psychology, to the rational choice of the group and to values. The author argues that the logic of terrorism can be fully understood only as a reflection of the ‘cultural’ building of collective identities and individual identities. For this reason, he outlines a framework for a cultural analysis of terrorism, and proposes the concept of ‘political world’ to represent the set of symbolic production that characterizes terrorism.