Lorne L Dawson
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 109934 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Lorne L Dawson |
| NOMBRES | Lorne L |
| APELLIDO | Dawson |
| FIRMA | DAWSON L L |
| AFILIACIONES | University of Waterloo |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1580-5800 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 57 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 157 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 56 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 1 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1985 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 8 |
The Crime-Terrorism Nexus and Jihadist Radicalization in the West
Using Conversion Theory to Explain Western Jihadi Terrorist Radicalization
Religious Redemption as the Motivation for the Jihadist Crime-Terrorism Nexus
In their influential article on the “crime-terror nexus” Basra and Neumann state that “jihadism can affect a criminal’s radicalisation process in two ways: it can offer redemption from past sins, or it can legitimise crime.” During their analysis, though, the two interpretive options become in effect one, reflecting the dominant orientation to the continuity of criminality and terrorism (religious or otherwise) as social phenomena. Examining the …
A comparative analysis of Canadian and Swedish foreign fighters
While there is a substantial research literature on Western 'foreign fighters' – those young men and women from Europe, North America, Australia and elsewhere who traveled to Syria and Iraq, from around 2011–2017, to join jihadist groups engaged in combat – there is a dearth of comparative studies examining the backgrounds of these fighters. National variations in the levels of recruitment have been measured and samples examined to determine the …
Special Issue
Understanding Involvement in Terrorism and Violent Extremism
Scholars seeking to understand why individuals become involved in terrorism and violent extremism rely on a multitude of theoretical frameworks. While these are commonly interpreted as being in antagonistic opposition, the core premise of this article is that further advances in our understanding of this violence are contingent upon us treating them as complementary. Limiting ourselves to three frameworks that are perhaps most in tension, we surv…
A Comparative Analysis of Australian and Canadian Foreign Fighters Traveling to Syria and Iraq
This article provides a comparative analysis of Jihadist foreign fighters who traveled from Australia and Canada to engage in the conflict in Syria and Iraq. Data are provided on the demographics of those who traveled, group affiliations, when and how they traveled, and their social connections. Despite the strong similarities between these societies, significant differences are detected across levels of educational attainment, immediate familial…
Re-examining the explanations of convert radicalization in Salafi-Jihadist terrorism with evidence from Canada
Evidence from multiple sources suggests converts to Islam are significantly overrepresented in the ranks of Salafi-jihadist terrorists. Researchers have been speculating for some time why this might be the case. This paper identifies, and critically examines, four hypothetical explanations commonly found in the literature: (1) some explanations focus on the significance of prior personal characteristics of the converts; (2) some explanations emph…
Chapter 1 – Homegrown Terrorist Radicalization
Canadian concern with the domestic threat of religious terrorism came of age with the arrest of the members of the Toronto 18 in 2006. This chapter seeks to increase our understanding of this case by placing it in comparative perspective in three ways. First, by arguing that the Toronto 18 represents one of the purest instances of so-called “homegrown terrorism.” Second, by comparing the data available on the ten adults convicted with the data av…
A Comparative Analysis of the Data on Western Foreign Fighters in Syria and Iraq
This report offers a concise, comprehensive, and critical overview of the empirical findings available on the background and possible motivations foreign fighters. It focuses on the young Western men and women who became jihadist foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq. The analysis compares thirty-four reports and academic articles published between 2014 and 2019. The analysis focuses on demographic factors, socio-economic marginalisation, past crimi…
Religion and Extremism
Discussions of religious extremism and terrorism still tend to veer between the Scylla and Charybdis of simplistic condemnations of religion as the inherently pernicious source of much historical a
Weapon of Peace
In Models of Men (1977), Martin Hollis quips that if he were forced to summarize the thesis of his book in a telegram, he could do so in six words. To capture the gist of Nilay Saiya’s argument takes twice as many words, but he, too, provides an equally succinct statement of his argument: “it is not religion per se that generates terrorism, but rather its restriction” (p. 30). With religious terrorism in mind, Saiya deftly uses data and historica…
Cults in Context
Debating the Role of Religion in the Motivation of Religious Terrorism
Challenging the Curious Erasure of Religion from the Study of Religious Terrorism
The role that religion plays in the motivation of “religious terrorism” is the subject of much ongoing dispute, even in the case of jihadist groups. Some scholars, for differing reasons, deny that it has any role; others acknowledge the religious character of jihadism in particular, but subtly discount the role of religion, while favoring other explanations for this form of terrorism. Extending an argument begun elsewhere (Dawson 2014, 2017), thi…
Introduction
Talking to Foreign Fighters
Little of the discussion of foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq is informed by primary data derived from talking with the foreign fighters. This article reports some initial findings from interviews with twenty foreign fighters in Syria. The findings are compared with three other recent studies of European foreign fighters, and aspiring fighters, based on some primary data. While those studies emphasize the role of low social and economic prospect…
Religion in the Public Sphere
At its core, this book addresses the public controversies about the reasonable accommodation of religious differences in the public sphere of largely secular Western societies, an issue which is now commonly used to engage students with the study of religion. As the editors argue, the focus on Canada is far from parochial, given the betwixt and between status of Canadian society—relative to Europe and the United States—on the issues of secularism…
Religious Radicalization and Securitization in Canada and Beyond
Religious Radicalization and Securitization in Canada and Beyond is an ideal guide to the ongoing debates on how best to respond to radicalization without sacrificing the commitments to multiculturalism and social justice that many Canadians hold dear."--pub. desc
The Neglected Role of Charismatic Authority in the Study of Terrorist Groups and Radicalization
Recent scholarship has called for additional research into the role of charismatic authority in terrorist groups and the process of radicalization. However, the sociological concepts of charisma and charismatic authority are being widely misused in terrorism studies. Current radicalization research often indirectly flirts with core concepts of charismatic authority, but fails to properly tap into its analytical utility. This article proposes to b…
Church-sect-cult
Church-Sect—cult
The Study of New Religious Movements and the Radicalization of Home-Grown Terrorists
This article examines: (1) the obvious reasons for, and curious absence of, a dialogue between scholars studying new religious movements (NRMs), particularly those responsible for acts of mass violence, and those studying processes of radicalization in home-grown terrorist groups; (2) the substantial parallels between established understandings of who joins NRMs, how, and why and recent findings about who joins terrorist groups in a Western conte…
The ‘Scandal’ of the Lubavitch Rebbe
In June 1994, the Lubavitch Rebbe, believed to be the Mosiach (the Messiah) died. Counter-intuitively, this failure of prophecy gave birth to an extreme messianic movement within the group, dividing it into two antagonistic factions (messianists and anti-messianists). This article examines the Beis Menachem, a messianic group whose members believe that the Rebbe is not dead; some even believe that he is God. We argue that this strong messianic re…
Is there a "renaissance" of religion in Canada? A critical look at Bibby and beyond
Research suggests Canada is a largely secular nation. Yet Reginald Bibby (2002) has recently proposed, surprisingly, that Canada is experiencing a religious renaissance. While "private spirituality" abounds in Canada, Bibby says his claim rests on increased levels of involvement in "organized religion." We have our doubts about Bibby's new optimism, and there are two sources of our scepticism. First, the cumulative weight of his own evidence is s…
Talking to Foreign Fighters
Little of the discussion of foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq is informed by primary data derived from talking with the foreign fighters. This article reports some initial findings from interviews with twenty foreign fighters in Syria. The findings are compared with three other recent studies of European foreign fighters, and aspiring fighters, based on some primary data. While those studies emphasize the role of low social and economic prospect…
The Study of New Religious Movements and the Radicalization of Home-Grown Terrorists
This article examines: (1) the obvious reasons for, and curious absence of, a dialogue between scholars studying new religious movements (NRMs), particularly those responsible for acts of mass violence, and those studying processes of radicalization in home-grown terrorist groups; (2) the substantial parallels between established understandings of who joins NRMs, how, and why and recent findings about who joins terrorist groups in a Western conte…
New religions and the internet
The mass suicide of 39 members of Heaven's Gate in March of 1997 led to public fears about the presence of 'spiritual predators' on the world wide web. This paper describes and examines the nature of these fears, as reported in the media. It then sets these fears against what we know about the use of the Internet by new religions, about who joins new religious movements and why, and the social profile of Internet users. It is argued that the emer…
Who joins new religious movements and why
Surprisingly, perhaps, controversy about the nature and dangers of cults or new religious movements remains a topic of considerable public concern and significant misunderstanding. Scholarship in the study of new religious movements, however, has reached a certain obvious maturity. This article summarizes and integrates the empirical data available in dispersed sources to provide a sociological profile of what reliably can be said about how peopl…
The Neglected Role of Charismatic Authority in the Study of Terrorist Groups and Radicalization
Recent scholarship has called for additional research into the role of charismatic authority in terrorist groups and the process of radicalization. However, the sociological concepts of charisma and charismatic authority are being widely misused in terrorism studies. Current radicalization research often indirectly flirts with core concepts of charismatic authority, but fails to properly tap into its analytical utility. This article proposes to b…
Is there a "renaissance" of religion in Canada? A critical look at Bibby and beyond
Research suggests Canada is a largely secular nation. Yet Reginald Bibby (2002) has recently proposed, surprisingly, that Canada is experiencing a religious renaissance. While "private spirituality" abounds in Canada, Bibby says his claim rests on increased levels of involvement in "organized religion." We have our doubts about Bibby's new optimism, and there are two sources of our scepticism. First, the cumulative weight of his own evidence is s…
Shop 'til You Drop
Robert Prus, Lorne Dawson, Shop 'til You Drop: Shopping as Recreational and Laborious Activity, The Canadian Journal of Sociology / Cahiers canadiens de sociologie, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Spring, 1991), pp. 145-164
A Comparative Analysis of the Data on Western Foreign Fighters in Syria and Iraq
This report offers a concise, comprehensive, and critical overview of the empirical findings available on the background and possible motivations foreign fighters. It focuses on the young Western men and women who became jihadist foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq. The analysis compares thirty-four reports and academic articles published between 2014 and 2019. The analysis focuses on demographic factors, socio-economic marginalisation, past crimi…
The ‘Scandal’ of the Lubavitch Rebbe
In June 1994, the Lubavitch Rebbe, believed to be the Mosiach (the Messiah) died. Counter-intuitively, this failure of prophecy gave birth to an extreme messianic movement within the group, dividing it into two antagonistic factions (messianists and anti-messianists). This article examines the Beis Menachem, a messianic group whose members believe that the Rebbe is not dead; some even believe that he is God. We argue that this strong messianic re…
Anti-Modernism, Modernism, and Postmodernism
Journal Article Anti-Modernism, Modernism, and Postmodernism: Struggling with the Cultural Significance of New Religious Movements Get access Lome L. Dawson Lome L. Dawson * Univesity of Waterloo * Direct correspondence to Lome Dawson, Department of Sociology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3GI, email: [email protected]. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religio…
The Cultural Significance of New Religious Movements
This paper advances previous arguments I have made about assessing the cultural significance of new religious movements (Dawson 1998a, 1998b) using the example of Soka Gakkai. An examination of this Japanese-based, but now world-wide, new religion highlights two things: (1) it demonstrates that there is an intimate relationship between the investigation of the “success” and the “significance” of a new religious movement, though the two concerns a…
Creating ‘cult’ typologies
A great number of quite different typologies for cults (or new religious movements) have been fashioned over the last 30 years. This paper provides an assessment of these efforts by means of a formal analysis of the nature and limitations of church‐sect‐cult typologizing in general and the strategic options available for creating cult typologies in particular. An argument is advanced for developing cult typologies with a simplicity of substantive…
Self-Affirmation, Freedom, and Rationality
In recent years a number of sociologists have suggested that some conversions to new religious movements should be understood as active accomplishments and not as passive occurrences. The experience of some converts, it has been proposed, might be profitably treated as acts of creative role-play. This paper develops the notion of distinguishing between active and passive conversions by elaborating a role-theoretical approach to the study of conve…
Otto and Freud on the Uncanny and Beyond
Otto and Freud on the Uncanny and Beyond Get access Lorne Dawson Lorne Dawson Lorne Dawson is Research Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Volume LVII, Issue 2, Summer 1989, Pages 283–311, https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/LVII.2.283 Published: 01 July 1989
On references to the transcendent in the scientific study of religion
This paper argues the philosophical and methodological feasibility of using the concept of ‘references to the transcendent’ to formally demarcate religious studies and circumvent the stumbling block of reductionism. There are three steps to the argument: (1) surveying the linguistic twist given to the problems of reductionism by recent developments in the philosophy of science; (2) delineating the new and more forceful case made for a ‘hard reduc…
The Cultural Significance of New Religious Movements and Globalization
Lorne L. Dawson, The Cultural Significance of New Religious Movements and Globalization: A Theoretical Prolegomenon, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 37, No. 4 (Dec., 1998), pp. 580-595
Neither nerve nor ecstasy
Free- Will Talk' and Sociology
Hardcore positivistic or humanistic sociologies are rare. In the history of sociology the two extremes have tended to converge, producing an awkward hybrid. A watered-down positivism is brought to the rescue of a stalled Verstehen sociology, or vice versa, and a difficulty like the free nature of human action is covered over with a veneer of pragmatism. Here it will be argued that Paul Tibbetts'recent recasting of the positivism-humanism debate i…
Understanding Involvement in Terrorism and Violent Extremism
Scholars seeking to understand why individuals become involved in terrorism and violent extremism rely on a multitude of theoretical frameworks. While these are commonly interpreted as being in antagonistic opposition, the core premise of this article is that further advances in our understanding of this violence are contingent upon us treating them as complementary. Limiting ourselves to three frameworks that are perhaps most in tension, we surv…
A Comparative Analysis of Australian and Canadian Foreign Fighters Traveling to Syria and Iraq
This article provides a comparative analysis of Jihadist foreign fighters who traveled from Australia and Canada to engage in the conflict in Syria and Iraq. Data are provided on the demographics of those who traveled, group affiliations, when and how they traveled, and their social connections. Despite the strong similarities between these societies, significant differences are detected across levels of educational attainment, immediate familial…
Re-examining the explanations of convert radicalization in Salafi-Jihadist terrorism with evidence from Canada
Evidence from multiple sources suggests converts to Islam are significantly overrepresented in the ranks of Salafi-jihadist terrorists. Researchers have been speculating for some time why this might be the case. This paper identifies, and critically examines, four hypothetical explanations commonly found in the literature: (1) some explanations focus on the significance of prior personal characteristics of the converts; (2) some explanations emph…
Weapon of Peace
In Models of Men (1977), Martin Hollis quips that if he were forced to summarize the thesis of his book in a telegram, he could do so in six words. To capture the gist of Nilay Saiya’s argument takes twice as many words, but he, too, provides an equally succinct statement of his argument: “it is not religion per se that generates terrorism, but rather its restriction” (p. 30). With religious terrorism in mind, Saiya deftly uses data and historica…
Challenging the Curious Erasure of Religion from the Study of Religious Terrorism
The role that religion plays in the motivation of “religious terrorism” is the subject of much ongoing dispute, even in the case of jihadist groups. Some scholars, for differing reasons, deny that it has any role; others acknowledge the religious character of jihadism in particular, but subtly discount the role of religion, while favoring other explanations for this form of terrorism. Extending an argument begun elsewhere (Dawson 2014, 2017), thi…
Introduction
The A to Z of New Religious Movements
Free- Will Talk' and Sociology
Hardcore positivistic or humanistic sociologies are rare. In the history of sociology the two extremes have tended to converge, producing an awkward hybrid. A watered-down positivism is brought to the rescue of a stalled Verstehen sociology, or vice versa, and a difficulty like the free nature of human action is covered over with a veneer of pragmatism. Here it will be argued that Paul Tibbetts'recent recasting of the positivism-humanism debate i…
Neither nerve nor ecstasy
On references to the transcendent in the scientific study of religion
This paper argues the philosophical and methodological feasibility of using the concept of ‘references to the transcendent’ to formally demarcate religious studies and circumvent the stumbling block of reductionism. There are three steps to the argument: (1) surveying the linguistic twist given to the problems of reductionism by recent developments in the philosophy of science; (2) delineating the new and more forceful case made for a ‘hard reduc…
The Sociology of Knowledge Comes To Religious Studies
Otto and Freud on the Uncanny and Beyond
Otto and Freud on the Uncanny and Beyond Get access Lorne Dawson Lorne Dawson Lorne Dawson is Research Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Volume LVII, Issue 2, Summer 1989, Pages 283–311, https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/LVII.2.283 Published: 01 July 1989
Reason, Freedom and Religion
Journal Article Reason, Freedom and Religion: Closing the Gap between the Humanistic and Scientific Study of Religion, by Lorne Dawson. New York: Peter Lang, 1988, vii + 247 pp. $46.95 Get access Toby E. Huff Toby E. Huff Southeastern Massachusetts University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 50, Issue 4, Winter 1989, Pages 432–433, https://doi.org/10.2307/3710781 Published: 01 …
Religious Sociology
Journal Article Religious Sociology: Interfaces and Boundaries, edited by William H. Swatos, Jr. New York: Greenwood Press, 1987, xiv + 194 pp. $37.95 Get access Lorne L. Dawson Lorne L. Dawson University of Waterloo Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 50, Issue 2, Summer 1989, Page 206, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711002 Published: 01 July 1989
Sui generisphenomena and disciplinary axioms
Daniel Pals and I have made independent arguments for the resolution of the debate over reductionism in religious studies with the adoption of appropriate ‘disciplinary axioms’. This paper undertakes a critical review of Pals' proposal, suggesting that his axiomatic conception of the sui generis nature of religious phemomena is substantively inadequate because he misconceives the theoretical grounds for axiom adoption in the social sciences. An a…
Religion and Political Behavior in the United States
Journal Article Religion and Political Behavior in the United States, edited by Ted G. Jelen. New York: Prager Publishers, 1989, xvi + 308 pp. $45.95 Get access Lorne Dawson Lorne Dawson University of Lethbridge Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 51, Issue 4, Winter 1990, Pages 409–410, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711084 Published: 01 December 1990
Self-Affirmation, Freedom, and Rationality
In recent years a number of sociologists have suggested that some conversions to new religious movements should be understood as active accomplishments and not as passive occurrences. The experience of some converts, it has been proposed, might be profitably treated as acts of creative role-play. This paper develops the notion of distinguishing between active and passive conversions by elaborating a role-theoretical approach to the study of conve…
Religion and the Social Sciences
Shop 'til You Drop
Robert Prus, Lorne Dawson, Shop 'til You Drop: Shopping as Recreational and Laborious Activity, The Canadian Journal of Sociology / Cahiers canadiens de sociologie, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Spring, 1991), pp. 145-164
The Sociology of Religion
Language and Self-Transformation
Civil Religion in Comparative Perspective
La these de la religion civile a donne lieu a d'importants debats et developpements d'ordre theorique appliques ici a un cas jamais etudie auparavant : le Chili sous la dictature militaire d'Augusto Pinochet, de 1973 a 1989. Sous le regime militaire, l'Etat chilien tenta d'imposer sa propre interpretation de l'histoire chilienne en tenant un discours fonde sur la religion civile. Le general Pinochet s'attribua un role sacerdotal et presenta sa lu…
Who joins new religious movements and why
Surprisingly, perhaps, controversy about the nature and dangers of cults or new religious movements remains a topic of considerable public concern and significant misunderstanding. Scholarship in the study of new religious movements, however, has reached a certain obvious maturity. This article summarizes and integrates the empirical data available in dispersed sources to provide a sociological profile of what reliably can be said about how peopl…
Moon Sisters, Krishna Mothers, Rajneesh Lovers
Journal Article Moon Sisters, Krishna Mothers, Rajneesh Lovers: Women's Roles in New Religions, by Susan Palmer, Syracuse, NY: University of Syracuse Press, 1994, 287 pp. $24.95 Get access Lorne L. Dawson Lorne L. Dawson University of Waterloo Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 57, Issue 3, Fall 1996, Pages 333–335, https://doi.org/10.2307/3712169 Published: 01 October 1996
Creating ‘cult’ typologies
A great number of quite different typologies for cults (or new religious movements) have been fashioned over the last 30 years. This paper provides an assessment of these efforts by means of a formal analysis of the nature and limitations of church‐sect‐cult typologizing in general and the strategic options available for creating cult typologies in particular. An argument is advanced for developing cult typologies with a simplicity of substantive…
The Gods Have Landed
Journal Article The Gods Have Landed: New Religions from Other Worlds, James R. Lewis (ed.). Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995, xv + 343 pp. $19.95 (pbk) Get access Lorne Dawson Lorne Dawson University of Waterloo Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 58, Issue 3, Fall 1997, Pages 296–297, https://doi.org/10.2307/3712223 Published: 01 October 1997
Cults in Context
Journal Article Cults in Context: Readings in the Study of New Religious Movements, by Lorne L. Dawson, (ed.). Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press, 1996, xii + 468 pp. $47.95 (pbk) Get access Peter Beyer Peter Beyer University of Ottawa Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 58, Issue 2, Summer 1997, Pages 198–199, https://doi.org/10.2307/3711880 Published: 01 July 1997
Cults in Context
In the face of the increasingly variegated ideological landscape of contemporary America, cults have become the focus of public controversy. The growth of new religions has been matched by the development of an organized and vocal opposition, the anti-cult movement. This in turn has prompted an extensive investigation of new religious movements (NRMs) by sociologists and psychologists of religion, as well as historians and religious studies schol…
Anti-Modernism, Modernism, and Postmodernism
Journal Article Anti-Modernism, Modernism, and Postmodernism: Struggling with the Cultural Significance of New Religious Movements Get access Lome L. Dawson Lome L. Dawson * Univesity of Waterloo * Direct correspondence to Lome Dawson, Department of Sociology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3GI, email: [email protected]. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religio…
The Cultural Significance of New Religious Movements and Globalization
Lorne L. Dawson, The Cultural Significance of New Religious Movements and Globalization: A Theoretical Prolegomenon, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 37, No. 4 (Dec., 1998), pp. 580-595
Amazing Conversions
When Prophecy Fails and Faith Persists
Research Article| October 01 1999 When Prophecy Fails and Faith Persists: A Theoretical Overview Lorne L. Dawson Lorne L. Dawson Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Nova Religio (1999) 3 (1): 60–82. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.1999.3.1.60 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permission…
Sociology (45 obras) · Philosophy (34 obras) · Religion and Society Interactions (34 obras) · Political science (32 obras) · Law (27 obras) · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence (19 obras) · Terrorism (16 obras) · Criminology (15 obras) · Epistemology (15 obras) · Religion, Society, and Development (15 obras)