Reflexive Radikalisierung: Eine Wissenssoziologische Diskursanalyse radikalisierter Verlustdiskurse am Beispiel des Islamismus und des Rechtsextremismus in Deutschland (2010–2026+)

The study centres on the observation that both camps – Islamist and far-right groups – base their worldview on a sense of loss: they see themselves as defenders of something that is being taken from them or has already been taken. Furthermore, they interpret the other camp as the cause of this loss. The project reconstructs these reciprocal references as ‘struggles over loss’ and compares their consequences. The central question is: How and under what conditions do radicalised discourses relate to one another, and when does this lead to reflexive radicalisation?

To answer this, the project combines two methods:

• Sociology of knowledge discourse analysis (WDA): This examines how interpretations and bodies of knowledge emerge and operate in public debates.
• Sampling procedures from grounded theory methodology (GTM): This helps to select the data set step by step according to theoretical criteria.

On this basis, a corpus of data relating to debates on Islam is compiled, which is then analysed in detail.

Further information on the project can be found on the website of the Professorship of Fundamental Theology.