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Since 2011, the Extremism Risk Guidance (ERG 22+) has been the primary risk assessment framework used for terrorist and violent extremist offenders in England and Wales. The aim of this study was to conduct a rapid evidence assessment to examine the research literature on the ERG22+ factors and to identify possible significant new and emerging knowledge around potential new factors.

Searches were conducted of the Google Scholar database to identify relevant literature published between 2012 and 2020. In total, 29 documents were identified, which examined new radicalisation models and frameworks, 339 were identified, which explored to some extent one or more of the current ERG factors, and a further 138 articles were identified, which focused on potentially relevant additional issues/factors.

Most of the ERG factors were the focus of substantial research activity between 2012 and 2020. Six factors, however, received very little research attention. Potential implications of these trends are considered. Ten research themes were identified with the potential to either form new factors or which could play a significant role in the updating or revision of some existing factors.

This paper is the first rapid evidence assessment on the ERG22+ risk factors. It provides an important picture of the published scientific research of potential relevance in this area and helps to inform the review process for the ERG22+.

This study aims to identify how Brazilian followers of an X/Twitter profile engage in theory-building processes leading up to the January 8, 2023 riots in Brasília, the Brazilian capital. This paper seeks to understand how cognitive and sociocultural processes weave together to weaponize collective knowledge construction that, in isolation, could be seen as virtuous but, in specific contexts, might lead to radicalization.

This study uses qualitative content analysis of comments on ambiguous X/Twitter posts published by a conspiratorial profile associated with former President Jair Bolsonaro. Content was published in the three weeks that preceded the coup d’état attempt by Bolsonaro supporters on January 8, 2023.

Findings point to users’ resorting to intuitive knowledge to support sensemaking processes in their search for subliminal meanings in tweets. That includes, for example, attempts to crack binary code-encrypted messages. This study also identified practices of cross-media sourcing, where users collect evidence from alternative social media channels to interpret messages containing verbal and visual information. Finally, this study found that religious symbols are often instrumentalized and become a lens through which followers organize information to integrate with their existing knowledge and assumptions.

With this work, the authors build on existing scholarship on epistemologies used by conspiratorial and radicalized groups as they engage in systematic sensemaking and often refer to religion to interpret messages that motivate extreme political position-taking. This study addresses a similar phenomenon as it unfolds in an understudied geographical context (Brazil) and seeks to demonstrate how individuals engage in collective sensemaking practices. The authors hope that their findings inform educators as they explore the affordances of social media to foster positive collective learning experiences in reasoning supported by social media.

The originality of this study is twofold. First, this study uses an analytical lens that draws on the learning sciences and cognitive science for inquiry of radicalization happening around social media. The authors understand that social media lend themselves particularly interesting to the analysis, as they are settings where notions of mastery blur, and individuals engage in conversations on complex, controversial topics. With that engagement, they demonstrate willingness to reason collectively. Second, this study investigates how those phenomena unfold in an understudied context, responding to calls for more diversity in research in the learning sciences as well as in media studies.

This study aims to examine how veganism is “seen” by young adult non-vegan consumers and how prevailing attitudes reinforce or challenge stigmas around veganism.

Photovoice methodology was used to explore young non-vegan consumers’ attitudes and beliefs towards veganism. Data was collected from students studying advertising at a major university in Australia, who produced images and narratives reflective of their own attitudes towards veganism. Polytextual thematic analysis of the resulting visual data was then undertaken to reveal the dominant themes underpinning participants’ attitudes. Participant narratives were then reviewed to confirm whether the ascribed meaning aligned with participants’ intended meaning.

Participant images were reflective of first, how they saw their world and their place within it, which showed the interplay and interconnectedness between humans, animals and nature, and second, how they saw vegans within this world, with both positive and negative attitudes expressed. Interestingly, vegans were simultaneously admired and condemned. By situating these attitudes along a spectrum of moral evaluation, bounded by stigmatisation and moral legitimacy, participants saw vegans as being either Radicals, Pretenders, Virtuous or Pragmatists. For veganism to become more widely accepted by non-vegans, there is an important role to be played by each vegan type.

This study offers a more nuanced understanding of how and why dissociative groups, such as vegans, become stigmatised, which has implications for messaging and marketing practices around veganism and associated products/services. Future research could use a similar methodology to understand why other minority groups in society are stereotyped and stigmatised, which has broader social implications.

This study aims to highlight the dimensions of the rivalry over the regional role between two regional powers in the Middle East, and the impact of local, regional and international pressures of the Syrian crisis on the role performance of the competing forces.

The study is based on using “the role approach” as an analytical frame to benefit by the application of the theory of role. This approach allows the possibility of linking various analytical levels, both in clarifying the relationship between internal and external factors and showing the interaction between elements of perception, abilities and behavior.

The international pressures shall remain governing the frame of competition among the roles of the regional powers, through determining the course of competition and its direct impact on its results.

This study examines the phenomenon of regional rivalry between two distinct and competing regional powers, in a turbulent environment in the wake of the Arab Spring crises, which created opportunities and challenges for regional powers, especially in Syria, where it intersected with the interests and policies of major and regional powers.

Existing literature has begun to identify the agonistic and contested aspects of the ongoing development of accountability systems. These “contests” are particularly important during periods of change when an accountability “deficit” has been identified, that is, when existing accountability systems are deemed inadequate and requiring revision. The purpose of this paper is to explore one such set of contests in the case of large technology and social media firms: the so-called “big tech”. The authors focus specifically on “big tech” because of increasing societal concerns about the harms associated with their products, services and business practices.

The authors analysed four US Congressional hearings, in which the CEO of Facebook was held to account for the company's alleged breaches and harms. The authors conducted a discourse analysis of the dialogue between the account giver (Mark Zuckerberg) and account holders (Members of Congress) in the oral testimony at the four hearings.

Two areas of contestation in the dialogue between the account giver and account holders are identified. “Epistemic contests” involved contestation about the “facts” concerning the harms the company had allegedly caused. “Responsibility contests” involved contestation about who (or what) should be held responsible for these harms and according to what standards or criteria.

The study advances critical dialogical accountability literature by identifying two areas of contestation during periods of change in accountability systems. In so doing, they advanced the theory by conceptualising the process of change as underpinned by discursive contests in which multiple actors construct and contest the “problem” with existing accountability systems. The outcomes of these contests are significant, the authors suggest, because they inform the development of reforms to the accountability system governing big tech firms and other industries undergoing similar periods of contestation and change.

To explore a potential relationship between politicians’ media background and social media success through an analysis of content and engagement strategies adopted by three consecutive Israeli prime ministers on their official Facebook pages.

A detailed comparative content analysis of a total of 1,242 posts published by three Israeli prime ministers – Benjamin Netanyahu, Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett – on the same official Facebook account, “the Prime Minister of Israel,” during their respective terms. Metrics like engagement rates, content distribution and media type utilization were considered.

All analyzed prime ministers exhibited consistent messaging strategies, suggesting a standardized approach to digital political communication. However, we found no correlation between a politician’s media background and their success on social media. Instead, decisive determinants of engagement outcomes were factors like longstanding political exposure and familiarity.

The observed uniformity in leaders’ messaging strategies indicates a prevalent standardized approach in digital political communication, revealing potential avenues for innovation and diversification.

This research challenges the prevailing notion that background in media inherently benefits digital political engagement, emphasizing the significance of political experience. The results provide new insights into the evolving landscape of political communication. Using signaling theory to evaluate how digital content reveals leaders’ intentions and credibility, our findings provide new insights into political communication in the digital era.

Social media provides a platform for people to connect, communicate and share their opinions, and has become a powerful gizmo for freedom of expression as well as freedom of speech. The present study intends to examine the role of social media in instigating hateful thoughts, actions among youth and eventually leading them towards hate speech.

Mixed methods were adopted to achieve the objectives, where survey (quantitative) and focus group discussions (qualitative) were carried out. The students who participated were from different universities, campuses and faith-based schools in Indonesia. They were recruited through online and offline sources where they showed their interest in participating in this study. Participants were 19–30 years old. Data was analysed by deploying the narrations, thematic (based on themes), and univariate analysis.

In the present research, three attributes of hate speech were investigated, such as form of expression, discrimination and identity factors. The findings of the study show that the prevalence of hate speech among youth in Indonesia is associated with their belongingness to political ideology, identity, nationality and ethnicity.

The objective is to examine the prevalence and nature of hate speech among youth in Indonesia, identify the factors and reasons for engaging in hate speech and assess the potential impacts of hate speech.

This research attempts to analyse the role of social media in shaping the mindset of the youth towards hate speech, which ultimately leads to delinquency.

Mass markets, bureaucratic hierarchy and impersonal factories have provided the foundation for Western capitalism during the past three to four centuries, but long before this, the Islamic bazaar fulfilled many of these functions effectively if not admirably despite substantial cultural, political and economic challenges. Paradoxically, bazaar-like arrangements are reappearing in some of the most advanced sectors of the postmodern world at the same time they persist or surface in several other settings. The purpose of this paper is to consider the causes of this persistence and what it means for managers?

This paper uses the categories of Geertz’s classic ethnographic description of the Sefrou suq in Morocco buttressed with other relevant sources to compare the attributes of the institutions of classic capitalism described by Weber to the Islamic Bazaar and similar hybrid manifestations found in diverse settings today.

This study suggests five lessons for modern bazaaris: It is never totally about the money – the importance of multiple currencies in creating productive exchanges. The promise and dangers of clientelism – working with trusted collaborators speeds cooperation but poses the danger of stifling innovation. Private lives, public bonds – how the mechanisms of the bazaar permit diverse partners to collaborate successfully. Everyone is a broker – how participants in the bazaar search out creative opportunities for exchange. Creating safe, random interaction – how the physical and social design of the bazaar safely brings together rivals.

These conclusions are drawn from existing ethnographic, historical and theoretical sources.

Contemporary managers dealing with environments where neoclassical markets and hierarchies no longer work or never fully arrived need to do the same, only more carefully, more consistently and more intentionally.

The legacy of the Islamic bazaar as a viable alternative to mass capitalism and a humanizing force has generally not been recognized in mainline management thought, especially in light of the erosion of the dominant metaphors of market and hierarchy in the postmodern world.

The records surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (JFK) have been subject to unique treatment in their management and opening. The John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 (JFK Records Act) mandated that the records would be opened in full by 2017, unless there was intervention from the sitting president. This study aims to examine the extent to which access to the JFK assassination records has been granted. It evaluates how open the archive is, and the consequences of withholding government records. It examines how the continued non-disclosure of this archive has helped to fuel the controversy and conspiracy theories surrounding Kennedy’s death.

This research was approached as traditional historical document analysis, reviewing the JFK assassination records releases from 2017–2018 and the broader landscape of access to information in America. A random sampling of the open and redacted records was used to undertake a statistical analysis on the amount of information that has been withheld. It was supplemented with freedom of information requests intended to reveal further information on the approach taken to redaction. The work was situated within a broader global literature review.

The research identified the limits to access to the JFK assassination records that exist because of the continued postponement and redaction of information by US federal government agencies. It found that the ambiguous language used for exemptions in the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the JFK Records Act has allowed agencies the freedom to interpret and limit access to information if they desired. Furthermore, agencies have had the power to hold and sanitise their own records. The work identifies how these approaches have caused questions, inconsistences, a lack of transparency and accountability in the US government. The lack of centralised processes and related explanations can be seen to fuel further controversies and conspiracies.

Using a systematic research methodology, this work presents a careful analysis of the varying processes and their implications for understanding of the events that surrounded Kennedy’s assassination. Lessons learnt can be applied to the general management of freedom of information and access to information.