| dc.description.abstract | Stories, style and radicalization are all tired together in an intricate and complex relationship constructed within the jihadi terrorist subculture. This study is an in-depth inquiry into the jihadi propaganda magazines Inspire, Dabiq and Rumiyah that aim to highlight this relationship. The full catalogue of magazines produced, at the time, have been analysed under the scope of cultural and narrative criminology. In total 2001 pages distributed over 32 editions have been analysed using qualitative document analysis. By drawing upon frameworks of narrative and cultural criminology, this study aims to identify and present what is characteristic for jihadi narratives and subcultural style, and how they can function in radicalization. Narrative criminological research operates with stories as their main data, and view them as constitutive of crime. The stories people tell, shape their lives and constitute future behaviour. The narratives told can instigate, sustain or leave crime behind. Cultural criminology pays specific attention to foreground factors, and draws heavily upon phenomenological research. Emotions connected with crime are the key points of focus, and these emotions are constructed and performed by the subcultural style. Within culture lies the meaning of crime, and it is through the culture that ‘the criminal’, as both person and perception, comes alive. In the analysis, I show how the propaganda magazines of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State provide their readers with a wide array of narratives to draw upon when they give meaning to their lives, narrate their lives and indeed, live their lives. What characterizes the jihadi narratives, from the master narrative, through the complex maze of collective stories, life-stories, event-stories and tropes, is that the propaganda magazines attempt to construct a narrative coherent frame for their readers, in which West is deliberately attacking Islam. Within this maze, is located a plethora of different stories, all with their constructions and meanings. Al-Qaeda, on the one hand, proclaims that the West must be beaten before the Khilafah can be established, whereas the Islamic State wants to expand outwards instead, starting by crushing their local enemies. Likewise, Al-Qaeda narrates itself as a highly professionalized insurgency, but the Islamic State wants to be seen as legitimate state. In terms of violence, narratives differ from being strictly defensive (AQ) to emotional intrinsic value (IS). Further, the propaganda magazines constructs a badass image and cool style, where being bad is good. This is done through the use of militarized clothing, music and by emphasising bravery, togetherness and masculinity. Further, it is a case of cultural bricolage in which products from the West, Salafism, Islam more broadly, youth cultures and war is used. The style can instigate violence, and is enacted through the desire for excitement and resistance towards their enemies. By constructing a dangerous and exciting lifestyle, they become attractive for thrill seekers and edgeworkers, who crave the adrenaline partaking in the jihadi subculture provides. Similarly, frames of resistance are constructed through satire and ridicule, as well as the destruction of cultural artefacts. This relationship may seem chaotic on the outside – except it is not. I show how there is a clear and strictly order homology between the subcultural style, edgework, resistance, and ideology that ties the subculture together. This relationship is pivotal in understanding how utilizing the subcultural style turns into explosive and violent terrorism. Throughout the analysis, it became evident that narratives and subcultural style, products and expressions weren’t always so different. In fact, they are inseparable in many respects. I attempt to show this in the analysis of how the propaganda magazines broadcast stories and feelings of death. Death narratives combined with the immediate feelings connected with them, construct the tripartite of “death frenzy”. The way they construct and broadcast the deaths of their own civilians, any and all non-jihadists as well as their own mujahideen is presented through tragic, celebratory and heroic deaths. “Stories, Style & Radicalization” then moves into a philosophical discussion where some of the radicalization theories are scrutinized by using the concepts found in the analysis. Indeed, the study attempt to see how stories, style and radicalization links together by assessing the attractive solutions offered by the style as well as the coherency of the narratives. In doing so, it simultaneously moves on to discuss and promote a common ground where narrative and cultural criminologists come together and strengthen their frameworks by drawing upon each other. | eng |