SOCIAL WORK AND RADICALISATION

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SOCIAL WORK AND RADICALISATION

The embarrassment of professionals

Daniel Verba

IRIS/USPN 3IN Alliance

04-03-21

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French findings

•  A strongly secularized society

•  A racialized society

•  Identity tensions (religious, ethnic, territorial ...)

•  A minority of radicalized young people in the social institutions

•  A deviation from the legal conception of

“laïcité”

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What is « laïcité » ?

•  Laïcité ≠secularism≠atheism

•  A legal and political principle based on three pillars :

–  Freedom to believe or not to believe –  Equality of cults

–  Religious neutrality of the state (the state has no religion, but not the society)

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Consequences for the social work

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•  Social workers are embarrassed

•  Confusion about the application of the principle of

« laïcité » in socio-educational institutions

•  Some conflicts in the educational teams

•  A difficulty in adopting a concerted and assumed educational posture in face of religious demands

•  Ethical dilemmas in the treatment of radicalisation cases

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Religions in Finland and France

5,5-67 millions

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2% 68%

1% 1%

28%

Lutherans Muslims

Orthodox Other religions No affiliation

60%

2% 6%

1% 1% 1%

29%

Roman catholics Muslims Protestants

Orthodox Jews Bhudists

Others

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Relationship with religion

(Observatoire de la laïcité, 2019)

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37%

31%

15%

10%

7%

Believers Atheists Agnostics Indifferents No answer

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The emergence of Islam on the french religious scene

•  1989, year of mutation

•  Return of the visible religious in an anticlerical society

•  Emergence of an « ostensible halal lifestyle »

Sources : Bobineau, Hervieu-Léger, Benzine

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"Islam works as a model of collective counter-identification providing an alternative to the French identity" Lorcerie (2007)

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France : a multireligious society...

•  Catholicism (50 to 75%) but poor practice (1,8% to 11%)

•  Islam (6%) but more believers and a more developed practice in the younger generations;

•  Protestantism (2% or 1.2 million people including nearly 400,000 Evangelists and Pencotists);

•  Judaism (1% or about 600,000 people including a majority of Sephardim from North Africa);

•  Orthodox Christians (300 to 500,000 people)

•  Buddhism (400 to 600,000 people);

•  Atypical or sectarian religious movements (eg 140,000 Jehovah's Witnesses);

•  Agnosticism (25% of the population does not identify with any religion, which does not mean that they are atheists).

Sources : INED, Institut Montaigne (IFOP)

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… But anticlerical

•  8 wars of religions

•  French revolution against catholic church

•  1905 : law of separation between religious institutions and republican state

•  Freedom of conscience and worship

•  The state has no religion

•  Religion equality

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The process of radicalisation

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What is radicalisation ?

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•  Radicalisation refers to the process by which

« an individual or group adopts a violent form of action, directly related to an extremist ideology of political, social or religious content that challenges the established political, social or cultural order »

Sources : Borum (2011), Khorsrokavar (2014)

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Radicalisation in France

(2016)

•  12 000 profils

•  A young phenomenon (75% are under 25 years old)

•  "An overwhelming social geography"

•  35% of converts, almost 50% of whom are women

•  A recurring biographical process

•  A double spring: social and psychological

•  A favorable context

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To explain not to justify

•  Radicalisation of Islam or Islamisation of radicality?

•  Radicalisation is the crossing of a product

(Islam), a life course of young peoples and a favorable context (secularism, segregation, postcolonialism, discriminations, racism…).

Sources: Kepel, Roy, Verba (2019)

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Typology of problem situations

•  An obstacle to social work;

•  A challenge to equality and neutrality among professionals;

•  A challenge to the ideology of the social worker;

•  Institutions do not always guarantee a clear and precise legal and regulatory framework.

Sources : Guelamine-Verba (2014); Verba (2019)

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Radicalisation and social work

•  Make a difference between piety and radicalisation

•  Teenage years are a "radical" period

•  Ethical dilemmas (report or not ?)

•  Police and General Intelligence Relations

•  Don’t forget the childcare

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Thanks for your attention

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SOCIAL WORK AND RADICALISATION