World Society on the Couch: Anti-Terror Consultancy as an Object and Test-Bed of Professional Sociology
HUMSEC Journal, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 67-82.
16 Pages Posted: 8 Nov 2011 Last revised: 1 Jun 2014
Date Written: 2008
Abstract
This paper is about the re-establishment of a professional, that is, a neutral perspective on terror; most research on terrorism is partisan in terms of biased culturalist studies on the ‘index patients’ of an international conflict. At the same time, there is very little research on the forms and functions of so called anti-terror measures which are commonly treated as acts of self- defence. In contrast to this, from a sociological point of view we find that it takes two to make the terror: an act of violence, and an act of labelling this violence as terror, too. Thus, we argue that Western societies should take full responsibility for their own perceptions, attributions, and actions within an international conflict system, instead of continuing to externalize these. Finally, we state that sociology has a demand for research on the applicability of the concepts of systemic therapy on the field of the intervention into stable inter-cultural conflict systems.
Keywords: Terrorism, Consulting, Consultancy, Profession, Security
JEL Classification: H56, K42
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation