Beyond the Internet

Mētis,Techne, and the Limitations of Online Artifacts for Islamist Terrorists

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4086404
AutoresMichael Kenney (0000-0001-9803-8522, Pennsylvania State University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2010
Volumen22
Número2
Páginas177-197
Fecha de publicación2010-03-11
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaTerrorism and Political Violence (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0954-6553 • E-ISSN: 1556-1836
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09546550903554760
OpenAlexW2040966157
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas10
Referencias citadas5

This study challenges the conventional wisdom that the Internet is a reliable source of operational knowledge for terrorists, allowing them to train for terrorist attacks without access to real-world training camps and practical experience. The article distinguishes between abstract technical knowledge (what the Greeks called techne) and practical, experiential knowledge (mētis), investigating how each helps terrorists prepare for attacks. This distinction offers insight into how terrorists acquire the practical know-how they need to perform their activities as opposed to abstract know-what contained in bomb-making manuals. It also underscores the Internet's limitations as a source of operational knowledge for terrorists. While the Internet allows militants to share substantial techne, along with religious and ideological information, it is not particularly useful for disseminating the experiential and situational knowledge terrorists use to engage in acts of political violence. One likely reason why Al Qaeda and other Islamist terrorists have not made better use of the Internet's training potential to date is that its value as a source of operational knowledge of terrorism is limited

Alliance · Computer security · Epistemology · Experiential knowledge · Internet privacy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Situation awareness · Sociology · Techne · Terrorism · The Internet · World Wide Web · Anthropology: Ethics, History, Culture · Computer Science · Engineering · Intelligence, Security, War Strategy · Law · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence