Countering pro-violent extremism – compromising contentious political engagement : a critical discourse analysis of the Swedish counter extremism initiative and its impact upon local political practices and contentious left wing political engagement

Abstract: The thesis builds upon a critical discourse analysis and ethnographic methods such as interviews and participatory observation, in an effort to contribute with original research about how the Swedish counter radicalization project discursively constructs political engagement as “pro-violent” and “anti-democratic”, and how these constructions impacts local political practices. The analysis reveals contradicting discourses within the core concepts used by the preventative project, and that these have various forms impacts within a variety of dimensions. Impacts mainly manifest themselves on the affective level, where the experience of the discursive construction raises profound questions regarding democracy, political legitimacy and democratic values. The contradictory discourse also furthers a collapse in contextualization of contentious political engagement, resulting in a discrepancy between the preventative projects and its applicability within the lived experiences of political practices. Furthermore, the analysis reveals how the flawed contextualization within the preventative project impinges upon the affective dimensions of the contentious political identity, resulting in both a possibility of negative ‘downward spirals of antagonism’ as well as a possibility for re-ignited civic engagement in ‘upward spirals of engagement’