Governance Lab Ideas Lunch: The Problem of Internet Radicalization?

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The Problem of Internet Radicalization?
The impending trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the alleged Boston Marathon bomber, has reignited debates concerning Internet radicalization: the role of digital and social media in galvanizing a few to carry out violent acts.  By bringing together detailed qualitative data of various case studies as well as aggregated statistics on homegrown terrorism, this talk explores questions at the intersection of digital media, security, rights and governance.  How is digital media positioned within the theories of radicalization that reverberate in the popular press, policy and policing?  What are the limits of these theories in isolating the effect of digital media in relation to a multitude of other factors?  How have theories of radicalization been operationalized in security, policing and punitive efforts and to what effect? How should – if at all – these theories inform approaches to Internet governance, particularly concerning the balance between constitutional and universal rights and security?

About Piotr
Piotr is the George Gerbner Postdoctoral Fellow at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.  He is currently completing a book manuscript entitled, Citizen, Terrorist, Double: Citizenship and Identity in the American War on Terror which examines the interconnection of media and official representations of homegrown terrorism, the increasing use of the “terrorism” paradigm to make sense of a variety of actors, actions and utterances, and the practices and experiences of citizenship in contemporary America.  Piotr earned a Dual-PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in communication and political science in 2014.  He also holds a B.A. in political science (University of Waterloo) and an advanced diploma in composition (Humber College).  He is also involved in an interdisciplinary project which examines the relation between how groups project, anticipate and imagine the future and how they collectively remember the past.

Lunch will be served.  Please RSVP so we have accurate numbers for food.