Abstract
It is often taken more or less for granted that perpetrators of mass killings and other acts of violent atrocity dehumanise their victims in order to justify killing them. Drawing on the past decade of developments in psychological theories of dehumanisation, and on representations and explanations of killing provided by Islamic State, this paper argues for a more complex understanding of the role of notions about humanity and inhumanity in the legitimation of violence.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 561-578 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | Global Discourse |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 19 Jan 2017 |
Keywords
- Dehumanisation
- Violence
- Religion
- Sectarianism
- Islamic State
- Ideology
Access to Document
- Ramsay_2017_GD_Dehumanisation_AAM
© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1080/23269995.2016.1253271