Advisor Information
Dr. Gina S. Ligon
Presentation Type
Poster
Start Date
1-3-2019 12:30 PM
End Date
1-3-2019 1:45 PM
Abstract
In recent years, terrorism scholars have proposed that the concepts of creativity and innovation can be applied to violent extremism. Similar to conventional organizations, violent extremist groups use creativity to generate products (e.g., attacks) that are unique, surprising, and effective. Despite the increased attention in creativity and innovation among terrorism scholars, few have applied these concepts to understand far-left extremism. The current study builds upon malevolent creativity and violent extremism research to explore the use of creativity in far-left extremist attacks. More specifically, I examine the relationship between indicators of creativity and agricultural target types using a sample of 206 communiques posted on biteback.com – an extremist affiliated website. The results indicate that far-left extremists engage in relatively low degrees of creativity in their attacks (i.e., effective and novel). However, the results also indicate that attacks on targets that are difficult to access (e.g., animal-testing laboratories) are more novel than attacks on targets that are easy to access (e.g., fast food restaurants). Overall, this study contributes to extremism literature by illustrating that far-left extremists may utilize creative tactics to overcome obstacles encountered during the execution of an attack. Future research on the far-left should explore the relationship between target accessibility and the use of creativity by far-left extremists.
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Included in
When Creativity Bites: An Analysis of Far-Left Online Communiques
In recent years, terrorism scholars have proposed that the concepts of creativity and innovation can be applied to violent extremism. Similar to conventional organizations, violent extremist groups use creativity to generate products (e.g., attacks) that are unique, surprising, and effective. Despite the increased attention in creativity and innovation among terrorism scholars, few have applied these concepts to understand far-left extremism. The current study builds upon malevolent creativity and violent extremism research to explore the use of creativity in far-left extremist attacks. More specifically, I examine the relationship between indicators of creativity and agricultural target types using a sample of 206 communiques posted on biteback.com – an extremist affiliated website. The results indicate that far-left extremists engage in relatively low degrees of creativity in their attacks (i.e., effective and novel). However, the results also indicate that attacks on targets that are difficult to access (e.g., animal-testing laboratories) are more novel than attacks on targets that are easy to access (e.g., fast food restaurants). Overall, this study contributes to extremism literature by illustrating that far-left extremists may utilize creative tactics to overcome obstacles encountered during the execution of an attack. Future research on the far-left should explore the relationship between target accessibility and the use of creativity by far-left extremists.