ABSTRACT
This exploratory chapter seeks to lay the groundwork of a fresh theoretical understanding of the broader ISIS phenomenon, with the potential to form the underpinnings for further empirical studies. It seeks, also, to critically interrogate current anti-extremism interventions in the UK compulsory sector and tertiary education, and in the wider society. The paper reviews two of the predominant approaches to understanding ISIS in current scholarly and quality journalistic writings. Using empirical data on UK ISIS participants, the chapter critiques these approaches, questioning their relevance to the context manifestations of ISIS enactment in UK education. The chapter then reviews Annemarie Mol’s ‘multiple ontologies’ framework in its original context of medical anthropology, and its application to broader fields of ethnographic endeavour. It then proceeds to apply ‘multiple ontologies’ to the study of ISIS, and hypothesises a provisional typology of ontologies for different kinds of ISIS enactment, both in the Middle East and UK, drawing on a range of supporting theory from diverse disciplines including Anthropology, Middle East Studies, neo-Marxist theory, Psychology and the Sociology of Education. The chapter focusses on ISIS enactment in UK education, arguing that it is an ontologically separate phenomenon from ISIS-on-the-ground in the Middle East, and that an awareness of this should inform policy interventions in UK education and in the wider society.
