Techno-radicalism; an Account of Radicalism in the Technology Era

Abstract

Today there is fairly rich literature to study how radical groups take advantage of technology to realize their goals. Something, however, is missing in such discussions as to how technology might affect the subjectivity of extremists. Technology, in the most of such inquiries, is taken to be merely a passive tool without any inherent bias. This instrumentalist approach to technology, however, turns out to be problematic. The contemporary studies of technology may provide us, as it will be argued, with insights to understand how technology might incline civilians towards radicalization. Two frameworks of postphenomenology and Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) will be the primary focus here to outline a schema of the impacts of technology on radicalization of minds. Although technology, with all its variety, is the general concern of the article, it will narrow the discussion down to social media platforms to make the point. It will be then suggested to ascribe an active role to technology in radicalism scholarship, thereby drawing attentions to the process of designing technologies.