Dr Youssef Dennaoui (Dr. phil.)

Project Manager

Email: youssef.dennaoui@uni-erfurt.de

Youssef Dennaoui heads the research project “Reflexive Radicalisation. A sociological analysis of discourses on loss among radicalised groups, using the examples of Islamism and right-wing extremism in Germany (2010–2026+)”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) from 2026 to 2029.

Main areas of teaching and research foci:

  • Religious studies
  • Islam in Germany and Europe
  • Religious radicalisation: Islamism, Salafism
  • Globalisation studies
  • Qualitative methods in social research
  • Sociological theories

About the person

Curriculum Vitae

Publications

Publications

  1. Dennaoui, Youssef (2026): Loss and salvation: a sociological discourse analysis of Salafist strategies of outbidding in the field of Islam in Germany. In: Journal for Religion, Society and Politics (ZRGP). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41682-025-00235-5
  2. Dennaoui, Youssef (2025): Salafist discourses of outbidding in the field of Islam in Germany: discourse analyses from the sociology of knowledge and recommendations for action. In: S. Abdellah, S. Tultschinetski, J. Junk & M. Freiheit (eds.), Islamism as a Social Challenge: Causes, Effects, Options for Action. Springer VS, pp. 253-288. link to the article
  3. Dennaoui, Youssef (2024): Religion between the logic of outbidding and the experience of resonance: some reflections following Hartmut Rosa's resonance theory. In: Simone Paganini and Claudia Gialousis (eds.): Achtsamkeit und Mitgefühl in religiösen Weltbildern: eine Festschrift für Annette Meuthrath. Shaker Verlag, pp. 270-280.
  4. Dennaoui, Youssef (2024): Contested religion: forms and transformations of religious competition in the field of Islam using the example of Morocco. In: Journal of Religion, Society and Politics (ZRGP). Link to the article
  5. Dennaoui, Youssef and Patrick Becker (2024): Religious fundamentalism in a global context. Exploring new dynamics and paradoxes using the example of global Salafism and evangelicalism. (forthcoming)
  6. Dennaoui, Youssef (2023): Religious Freedom in the Field of Tension between Populist Anti-Muslim Sentiments and Islamist Radicalisation Tendencies. Sociological Observations Using the Case of Germany. In: Hirschberger, Bernd/Voges, Katja (eds.): Religious Freedom and Populism. The Appropriation of a Human Right and How to Counter It. Bielefeld, pp. 135-146. link to the article
  7. Dennaoui, Youssef (2023): Religious Outbidding: Elements for the Sociological Determination of a Special Form of Religious Competition in the Field of Islam. In: Paula-Irene Villa-Braslavsky (ed.) 2023: Proceedings of the 41st Congress of the German Sociological Association in Bielefeld 2022. link to article
  8. Dennaoui, Youssef (2023): Salafism as a fundamentalist movement: A sociological perspective on religion. ZfBeg | Journal for Christian-Jewish Encounters in Context. 1/2023, Tübingen. Link to the article
  9. Dennaoui, Youssef (2021): Reflexive Islam: Islam sociology as cosmopolitanisation research. In: Social World, special volume 24 (2021): Sociological imagination and cosmopolitan polity. Perspectives on a continuation of Ulrich Beck's sociology. Edited by Römer, Oliver/Boehncke, Clemens/Holzinger, Markus, Baden-Baden: Nomos 2021, pp. 239-271. link to article
  10. Dennaoui, Youssef (2021): 'Linking sociologies' as a prerequisite for cosmopolitan theory work: Ulrich Beck's contribution to a sociology of the global South. In: Blättel-Mink, Birgit (ed.): Society under tension. Proceedings of the 40th Congress of the German Sociological Association 2020. link to article
  11. Dennaoui, Youssef (2020): The global infection as a side effect: Attempts at interpretation following Ulrich Beck. In: Marina Ortrud M. Hertrampf (ed.): Corona: Crisis or turning point? Wie Krisen Kulturen verunsichern und verändern/Corona: crisis or change? How crises unsettle and change cultures, PhiN supplement 24/2020, pp. 192-205.
  12. Dennaoui, Youssef (2016): Modernisation Paths and Secularisation Cultures: On the Critique of the Secularisation Thesis in the Context of the 'Multiple Modernities' Debate. In: Stoellger, Philipp/Kumlehn, Martina (eds.): Wortmacht - Machtwort. Who has the say in matters of religion? Deutungsmachtkonflikte in und um Religion, Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann 2016, pp. 285-310.
  13. Dennaoui, Youssef (2016): Cultural comparison as a problem of globalisation theory. A comparative theoretical approach. In: Linda Simonis (ed.): Cultures of Comparison. Comparative Cognition in Literary Studies, Philosophy, Social and Cultural Studies, Heidelberg: Winter Verlag 2016, pp. 205-239.
  14. Dennaoui, Youssef (2014): The order of protest. On the relationship between law and protest in the Arab Spring using the example of Morocco. In: Löw, Martina (ed.): Diversity and Cohesion. Proceedings of the 36th Congress of the German Sociological Association in Bochum and Dortmund 2012, edited on its behalf by Martina Löw. Wiesbaden: Springer VS 2014, CD-ROM.
  15. Dennaoui, Youssef (2010): Meaning and power in global modernity. Diversity of modernity and the (im)possibility of cultural comparison. Lit-Verlag, Münster. 2010 [In: Society and Communication. Sociological Studies, vol. 8, edited by Werner Gephart and Daniel Witte].
  16. Dennaoui, Youssef (2008): Controversy and culture. Preliminary Considerations on a Sociology of Controversy, in: Gunther Gebhard; Oliver Geisler; Steffen Schröter (eds.): Streit-Kulturen. Polemische und antagonistische Konstellationen in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag 2008, pp. 209-230 (with Daniel Witte).