Radicalization and radicalities

Abstract

The author starts from the irruption of the concept of radicalization in political and social discourses to analyze the evolution of the concept, the concepts that have been derived from it and its treatment. He speaks of a distortion of the concept and bets on recovering its complexity, both in terms of its forms (different types of radicalization), and in terms of what causes or contributes to the development of these phenomena (speaks of multicausality and the need for an anthropological, sociological, psychological and political approach, among others). On the other hand, the author is critical of the commitment to an almost-therapeutic “deradicalization” made by the French state, which generated more than disappointing results, and is more confident in the current commitment based on “prevention”, while pointing out the limitations of the training of social work professionals (largely the result of general training deficits in the French education system) to tackle this task with solvency. In the final section, the author points out what, in his opinion, are some of the main deficits, which, as they could be alleviated, would have an impact on a better approach to the phenomena of violent radicalization and, in general, on a better understanding. of many other contemporary social phenomena that develop in parallel to this.