AVERT International Research Symposium
Democracy, Dissent and Countering Violent Extremism
26th – 28th September 2023
Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia
The counterterrorism and countering violent extremism frameworks of many democracies were established in the immediate post-9/11 context and evolved to address threats from both foreign terrorist organisations and their home-grown manifestations.
Today, democracies around the world are facing additional challenges such as increasing polarisation, declining trust in institutions and governments, and growing adherence to anti-government conspiracies. This has contributed to the growth of more diverse and complex violent extremist organisations and networks. It has also resulted in the emergence of a wide array of anti-democratic political and social movements, as well as individuals who are mobilised by a complex range of anti-government and sometimes anti-democratic sentiments and ideas.
These recent shifts in the violent extremist landscape mean that existing preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) programs and frameworks are being challenged to consider whether and how they should address these new and more volatile dynamics.
Yet the roots and potential solutions to these anti-democratic manifestations arguably go well beyond P/CVE paradigms. So, what role, if any, do P/CVE policies and programs play in this environment?
How can we better understand how and why these anti-democratic social movements emerge and take shape? How do we deal with dissenting social movements in democratic societies that advocate for violence, engage in intentional violent protest or whose actions undermine social cohesion and core democratic principles and processes? Where should we draw the line between legitimate democratic dissent, on the one hand, and extremism, on the other, in democratic societies where individuals expect to be able to exercise their right to protest and contest both the state and each other? What are the implications of these issues for P/CVE practitioners and policymakers?
The 2023 AVERT Research Symposium will engage with the latest research and practice perspectives on this theme. It aims to bring together Australian and international researchers from a variety of disciplines and practitioners and policy makers at the forefront of the field.
About
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Keynote Speakers
PROFESSOR DONATELLA DELLA PORTA
Professor of Political Science, Dean of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences
Scuola Normale Superiore (Italy)
Donatella della Porta is Professor of Political Science, Dean of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences and Director of the PhD program in Political Science and Sociology at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence, where she also leads the Center on Social Movement Studies. Among the main topics of her research: social movements, political violence, terrorism, corruption, the police, and protest policing. She directs a major project "Mobilizing for Democracy" about civil society participation in democratization processes in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America.
She is the author or editor of 90 books, 150 journal articles and 150 contributions in edited volumes. della Porta's publications include Legacies and Memories in Movements, Sessantotto. Passato e presente dell’anno ribelle, Late Neoliberalism and its Discontents, Spreading Protest, and Blackwell Encyclopedia on Social and Political Movement.
Della Porta has received various international prizes and recognitions such as the Forschungspreise of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, awarded in November 2021, for life achievements as a highly prominent international scholar.
She received a BA at the University of Catania, a Diplôme d'Etudes Approfondies at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France and a Ph.D. at European University Institute.
PROFESSOR JOEL BUSHER
Professor of Political Sociology
Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University (UK)
Joel Busher is Professor of Political Sociology at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University. His research examines the escalation and restraint of political violence, mobilisation against minoritised groups, and the enactment and impacts of security policies.
His work is published in leading journals in these areas, and he is the author of four books, including the forthcoming Routledge Handbook on Radicalisation and Countering Radicalisation. His book The Making of Anti-Muslim Protest (Routledge) was awarded the British Sociological Associations Philip Abrams Memorial Prize.
He is also joint editor of the volume Researching the Far Right: Theory, Method and Practice (Routledge) and is currently the principal investigator on a project that examines pathways towards and away from violence during periods of heightened activity by organised anti-minority groups, funded by the Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST). He has previously conducted CREST-funded research projects exploring processes of restraint within militant groups.
He has also undertaken research on the conceptualisation of radical groups and their intersections with one another and with the so-called ‘mainstream’. Professor Busher frequently presents to and advises senior policymakers in the UK and internationally on how they respond to, interpret and implement counterterrorism and counter-extremism policy.