The radicalisation machine: experiences of targeted communities from Molenbeek
and Verviers
The self-evidence with which is being spoken about “radicalisation” by commentators, journalists, analysts and politicians contrasts sharply with the controversy about the concept in scientific literature.
This observation is the starting-point for this article, which is based on multidisciplinary research undertaken between 2017 and 2019 with, among others, fieldwork in Molenbeek and Verviers. It focuses on two questions, i.e. how the term is used in scientific literature and how targeted communities in these
neighbourhoods have experienced the societal response to the phenomenon. We argue in this article
that the term “radicalisation” is problematic and that the way in which policy, media, researchers and
other actors have responded to it is experienced as a machine by targeted communities. We also suggest that the scientific dissensus about what causes the phenomenon may also point out that there is no unique or relatively homogeneous phenomenon to which the term “radicalisation” refers.