The special issue aims to widen the analysis of extremism to account for the unresolved puzzles that continue to plague practitioners, policy makers, and academics alike:
- Why some individuals engage in extremist politics while others in the same environment do not?
- How do group identification and politicized identities become constructed in extremist contexts?
- What are the gradual processes of psychological transformation that occur in relation to the beliefs, actions and reactions of different social groups to extremist societal milieus?
- What are the main drivers of extremist public opinions?
- How do political participation, recruitment strategies, including social media, public policies, and globalization affect the turn towards extremist political identification?
- What role do age, ethnicity, class, race and gender play in this process and how can we understand the function of ideology, insecurity and anxiety that often seem to be at the heart of extremist thoughts and beliefs?
- And perhaps most importantly, how can extremist beliefs and behavior be prevented?