ABSTRACT
The present chapter contextualises the book in current scholarly debates. It opens by discussing the complexity of “radicalisation” as a process and it continues by identifying two kinds of factors that may drive individuals towards radical interpretations of Islam: the agency and the structural factors of radicalisation. The chapter also provides a review of the specific literature on Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) that focuses on its genesis and its expansion towards the West, together with its claims and specific goals. After highlighting current gaps in both the literature concerning radicalisation and HT in particular, this chapter questions New Social Movement Theory (NSMT) as the common theoretical framework to study highly institutionalised groups such as HT and suggests a new approach based on organisations, i.e. Organisational Theory.
