ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the radicalization that is contrasted with current attempts to understand radicalization. The state of the art on radicalization has developed from explaining why radicalization takes place to understanding how radicalization takes place. Initially, the literature on this topic focused on innate characteristics of individuals or situational factors alone in order to explain radicalization. Researchers tended to depict radicalization as stemming either from individual traits such as psychological prepositions or from structural factors such as socio-economic conditions or geo-political factors. In contrast to these traditional approaches, the current literature understands radicalization as a process. Instead of mono-causal explanations of why radicalization takes place by giving priority to either individual characteristics or situational background factors, understanding the relationship between individual and situation allows for comprehension of the dynamic process of radicalization. Radicalization will clarify the scope of our research: the radicalization of Muslim communities in Western Europe.
