TY  - JOUR
AB  - This article provides an overview of the results of a two-year research project. We investigated, firstly, how extremist organisations try to exert influence in the formal education system. Secondly, the project focused on educational actitivties and trainings that extremist organisations use to spread their ideology and recruit new members. Five areas were examined in status quo analyses and in-depth case studies, namely: domestic right-wing extremism, ultranationalism in diaspora communities, Christian extremism, Salafism, and far-right esoteric anti-state movements. While we found little direct influence on the formal education system, it is mainly the organisations’ own educational activities that are important. The investigated groups differ in their organisational structures, but also in their educational offers and target groups. While some form very loose networks that even refrain from using a common name or label, others are organised in a strict hierarchy. Not all of them are equally interested in recruiting new members on a broad basis; some organisations, such as the “Society of Saint Pius” (Piusbruderschaft) or the “Grey Wolves”, direct their educational efforts inwards and towards their “own” youth; others – such as the Salafists or Identitarians – are missionary in nature. The goals of the investigated organisations are correspondingly diverse and range from the reproduction of their own community via the recruitment of new cadres and disseminators to the influencing of public discourse through low-level dissemination of their own ideology. Non-ideological educational measures can also serve the purpose ofcreating general legitimacy in the community.
AU  - Hofinger, Veronika
DO  - 10.7396/IE_2023_D
ET  - 08/2023
KW  - extremist organisation
education sector
LA  - eng


M1  - International Edition
PY  - 2023
SN  - 1813-3495
SP  - 36-48
ST  - Strategies of Extremist Organisations and their Influence in the Education Sector. Summary of the results of the Stratex project
T2  - SIAK-Journal − Journal for Police Science and Practice
TI  - Strategies of Extremist Organisations and their Influence in the Education Sector. Summary of the results of the Stratex project
UR  - https://www.bmi.gv.at/104/Wissenschaft_und_Forschung/SIAK-Journal/internationalEdition/files/Hofinger_IE_2023.pdf
VL  - 13
ID  - 841
ER  -