Abstract
This book does not claim to contain any ‘truths’ about ‘new terrorism’. The book was based on the premise that ‘new terrorism’ is a social construction. So rather than being a brute ‘fact’, terrorism is constituted in language. It does not exist outside of discourse. Any kind of act has to be interpreted as terrorism for it to be terrorism and the words we use to describe and predicate acts we interpret as terrorism both reflect and influence our perceptions of the phenomena. The first part of this conclusion wants to briefly summarise the main argument of the book, while the second part will reflect on the implications of a constructivist approach on future terrorism research and indicate three potential research areas arising from this book which could be pursued in the future. This includes questions about the origins of particular understandings about terrorism, the role of popular culture in the construction of ‘the terrorist’ and finally the consideration of ‘counter-measures’, such as for example reconciliation, which conventionally fall outside of the options considered appropriate against the ‘tabloid terrorist’. These three research areas are meant to serve purely as examples and should not be understood as ‘the’ but as ‘a’ future of Terrorism Research.
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‘If we cannot hope ever to be perfectly right, we can perhaps find both enlightenment and refreshment by changing, from time to time, our ways of being wrong’ (Wheelwright 1962)
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© 2010 Alexander Spencer
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Spencer, A. (2010). Conclusion: The Tabloid Terrorist and Future Research. In: The Tabloid Terrorist. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230281301_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230281301_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-36569-2
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-28130-1
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