Dr Youssef Dennaoui (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.

research foci:

  • Sociology of religion
  • Sociology of Islam
  • Islam in Germany and Europe
  • Religious radicalisation in Islam: Islamism, Salafism
  • Research on modernisation and secularisation
  • Sociology of globalisation
  • Qualitative Methods in Social Research

About the person

Curriculum Vitae

Career history

Since 2026 Head of the DFG research project “Reflexive Radicalisation: A sociological analysis of discourses on loss in radicalised groups, using the examples of Islamism and right-wing extremism in Germany (2010–2026+)”
2020–2024 Head of the BMBF research project “Religious competition and conflicts over interpretative power in the global field of Salafism: A comparative study of Salafist beliefs in Germany and Morocco”
2017–2025 Employee in the Sociology of Religion and Islam and Adjunct Lecturer on the Bachelor’s programme in “Social Sciences” and the Master’s programme in “Theology and Global Development” at the Institute of Theology, RWTH Aachen University
Since 2010 Lectureship within the Master’s programme “Societies, Globalisation and Development” at the Institute for Political Science and Sociology, University of Bonn (IPWS)
2010–2016 Research Co-ordinator at the Käte Hamburger College “Law as Culture” – International College for Research in the Humanities at the University of Bonn
2009–2010 Employee at the coordination office of the “Integration through Qualification” network in Düsseldorf on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS)
2006–2008 Participation in working groups at the Centre for the Classical Tradition (CCT) and the Centre for Religion and Society (ZERG), as well as in the Cluster of Excellence initiative “Science and Norms in Knowledge-Based Societies” at the University of Bonn
2005–2009 Research assistant with teaching duties at the Institute for Political Science and Sociology at the University of Bonn (IPWS)
2000–2004 Non-academic work experience in Aachen and Cologne

University education

2010 Acquired a doctorate in philosophy from the Faculty of Philosophy at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn with a thesis entitled “Meaning and Power in Global Modernity. The Diversity of Modernity and the (Im)possibility of Cultural Comparison”
1993–2000 Studied Philosophy, Sociology and Psychology at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen (degree: Magister Artium, M.A.)
1987–1991 Studied Philosophy (specialising in classical Islamic philosophy), sociology (specialising in Islamic societies) and psychology at Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco (degree: Licence en Lettres)

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).