Globalization and Radicalization: The Rise of Extreme Reactions to Intercultural Contact, Sociocultural Disruption, and Identity Threat

TY - CHAP

T1 - Globalization and Radicalization

T2 - The Rise of Extreme Reactions to Intercultural Contact, Sociocultural Disruption, and Identity Threat

AU - Ozer, Simon

AU - Obaidi, Milan

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Globalization has transformed local contexts through increasing intercultural and intergroup contact across geographical distance. Such transformations have disrupted the traditional sociocultural order and made people’s sense of self and belonging more uncertain and negotiable. In contemporary societies, people are reacting to the growing sociocultural uncertainty and diversity, as well as to new cultural interactions and negotiations. While such reactions to globalization can initiate positive outcomes such as creativity and global unification, they can also challenge the individual’s sense of self and belonging. That is, accelerating intercultural and intergroup contact can cause exclusionary reactions to globalization in various sociocultural contexts. Moreover, the globalized disruption of the existing social hierarchy and belief system can lead to political polarization and intergroup conflict, motivating extremism as a defensive reaction to preserve one’s religious, cultural, and ethnic purity. Most defensive reactions to globalization are characterized by an essentialist understanding of a prescriptive ideal life and society. Such perceptions are evolving around an ethnic-centered point of view, among both majority and minority groups, and driven by experiences of globalization-based fear and contextual insecurity. Overall, globalization can initiate radicalized defensive reactions to perceived threats to one’s privileges as well as to ethnic, religious, and cultural identity.

AB - Globalization has transformed local contexts through increasing intercultural and intergroup contact across geographical distance. Such transformations have disrupted the traditional sociocultural order and made people’s sense of self and belonging more uncertain and negotiable. In contemporary societies, people are reacting to the growing sociocultural uncertainty and diversity, as well as to new cultural interactions and negotiations. While such reactions to globalization can initiate positive outcomes such as creativity and global unification, they can also challenge the individual’s sense of self and belonging. That is, accelerating intercultural and intergroup contact can cause exclusionary reactions to globalization in various sociocultural contexts. Moreover, the globalized disruption of the existing social hierarchy and belief system can lead to political polarization and intergroup conflict, motivating extremism as a defensive reaction to preserve one’s religious, cultural, and ethnic purity. Most defensive reactions to globalization are characterized by an essentialist understanding of a prescriptive ideal life and society. Such perceptions are evolving around an ethnic-centered point of view, among both majority and minority groups, and driven by experiences of globalization-based fear and contextual insecurity. Overall, globalization can initiate radicalized defensive reactions to perceived threats to one’s privileges as well as to ethnic, religious, and cultural identity.

KW - Cultural threat

KW - Extremism

KW - Globalization

KW - Identity

KW - Localization

KW - Radicalization

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85159042179&partnerID=8YFLogxK

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 978-3-031-04643-8

SP - 107

EP - 130

BT - Globalized identities

A2 - Katzarska-Miller, Iva

A2 - Reysen , Stephen

PB - Palgrave Macmillan

CY - Cham

ER -