The Routledge International Handbook on Social Exclusion and Radicalisation

Introduction: the entangled web of social exclusion and radicalisation

Tahir Abbas, Lianne Vostermans, and Richard McNeil-Willson 

Part 1: Northern exposures: unveiling exclusion and extremism in the Global North 

1. Social exclusion and radicalisation in the French context: an issue of engagement and social reintegration

Nicolas Amadio, Massi Benbouriche, Bruno Domingo, and Rachel Sarg 

2. Marginality and ethnicity in European cities: the case of some trajectories of involvement of young Belgian-Moroccans in political violence with Islamic references in Brussels

Chaib Benaissa 

3. The fractured self: social exclusion, identity, and radicalisation in the Netherlands

Tahir Abbas, Richard McNeil-Willson, Inés Bolaños Somoano, Cátia Moreira de Carvalho, and Lianne Vostermans

4. Considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people’s engagement with extremism: propositions, suppositions and fears (UK Focus)

Anne-Marie Martindale and Gabe Mythen 

5. Pandemic pressure: COVID-19 and far-right violence in Germany

Chelsea Thorpe and David Winston 

6. Social exclusion and radicalisation in German Muslim TikTok users
Nader Hotait 

7. From perceived threats to radicalisation: unmasking far-right narratives through a comparative analysis

José L. Salido-Medina, Daniel F. Pérez-García, Javier Ruipérez Canales, and Karen L. Hough 

8. Down, down in the South: explaining social exclusion and violent radicalization in Portugal

Cátia Moreira de Carvalho and Inés Bolaños Somoano 

9. Activism as a buffer for radicalisation within the Moroccan diaspora in Spain

Josep García Coll 

10. Loss of community and radicalisation: the case of Italy

Priya Sara Mathews 

11. Multilayered social exclusion and vulnerability to manipulation: radicalisation risk factors among the Romani in Central Europe and the Western Balkans

Markéta Kocmanová 

12. Deradicalisation challenges and strategies in Kosovo: a case study analysis of women returning from Daʿesh territory

Magdalena El Ghamari 

13. From margin to mainstream: how white supremacist ideology exploits social exclusion and fuels radicalisation in the United States

Kieran Aris 

14. European and Northern American formers’ conceptions on radicalisation and deradicalisation

Heidi Maiberg 

Part 2: Southern currents: navigating marginalisation, resistance, and radical pathways in the Global South 

15. Framing marginalisation: injustices, humiliation, and dignity in violent Islamists’ mobilisation in Tunisia (2011-2021)

Clara-Auguste Süß 

16. The colonial past, memory exclusion policies, and Algerian-French relations

Mouloud Souilah and Faouzia Zeraoulia 

17. Exploring the potential of engendering Islamic religious curriculum in schools to promote gender inclusion and mitigate youth radicalisation

Hiam Elgousi 

18. Modern neocolonialism: the hidden chains of kuwait’s identity

Dalal A. Marafie 

19. Traversing complex landscapes in Pakistan: exploring the potential for community-based sport initiatives and the prevention of violent extremism

Umair Asif, Derrick Charway, and Tegwen Gadais 

20. Unveiling the seeds of rebellion: investigating marginalisation and social exclusion in FATA’s escalating militant landscape

Sadaf Khan, Vivek Kumar, and Saad Ullah Khan 

21. Climate change and eco extremism in India

Nethaji Subhash and Gabriela Michael 

22. Boko Haram insurgency, social exclusion and decoloniality in Nigeria

Akinbode Fasakin 

23. Radicalisation and social exclusion in Indonesia: a critical evaluation of violent extremism

Irine Hiraswari Gayatri and Indriana Kartini 

24. The FORB-social inclusion link to prevent violent radicalism in Indonesia and Kenya

Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen 

25. Marginalisation into militancy: rethinking radicalisation through Filipino vigilantism

Chelsea Thorpe

Part 3: Bridging worlds: transnational dynamics, theoretical insights, and methodological frontiers

26. Explanatory factors in lone-actor terrorist attacks: social exclusion, online radicalisation and the concatenation effect

Jacob Astley and Gabe Mythen 

27. Anomic manhood and Inceldom: a Durkheimian sociological analysis of shared social exclusion and subordinated masculinity in involuntary celibate online communities

Jade Hutchinson, Stephanie Scott-Smith, and Kenton Bell† 

28. Understanding social exclusion and vulnerability to radicalisation through the prism of Power Threat Meaning Framework: practitioners’ perspectives

Ieva Čechavičiūtė and Alice Bennett 

29. Crisis and convergence: the role of COVID-19 in shaping youth radicalisation

Michaela Rana 

30. Envy as a mediator in the exclusion-radicalisation relationship

Michael Moncrieff 

31. Social exclusion and radicalisation: how a moralistic language contributes to violence by fostering interpersonal and intergroup separation

Giulia Grillo 

32. The nexus between long-distance nationalism, social exclusion and disinformation: experiences of Indian diaspora in Australia

Jasbeer Musthafa Mamalipurath 

33. Isolation, radicalisation and the theological dimension

Rizwan Mustafa 

34. Intersecting realities: methodological insights into researching radicalisation and social exclusion

Markéta Kocmanová and Suraj Lakhani 

Epilogue

Tahir Abbas, Lianne Vostermans, and Richard McNeil-Willson 

Biography

Tahir Abbas holds a PhD in Ethnic Relations from the University of Warwick. He is currently Professor of Criminology and Global Justice at Aston University. His research explores the governance of extremism, the regulation of religious diversity, and the intersections between policy and everyday urban life. His most recent publication is Capitalism, State Power, and the Production of Extremism (Springer Nature, 2025).

Lianne Vostermans holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Durham. She is currently a Senior Advisor at OpenHorizon and a Research Affiliate at Leiden University. Her research critically examines the relationship between religion and violence, with particular attention to the intersections of micro-, meso-, and macro-level mobilisation. She is the author of the forthcoming book Beyond Faith and Fury: Rethinking ‘Religious Violence’ in the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990) (I.B. Tauris, 2026).

Richard McNeil-Willson holds a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Exeter, and is Lecturer at the Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies department, University of Edinburgh. His works focuses on critical approaches to extremism, as well as counterterror policy and law. Recent work includes the Routledge Handbook of Violent Extremism and Resilience (with Anna Triandafyllidou, 2023).