Samenvatting

This dissertation focusses on counter-radicalisation policies and their effectiveness in Denmark and the Netherlands. Increased terrorism on European soil in the last decade, forced EU member states to implement renewed counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation measures. The purpose of this study is to find whether social movement theory can explain radicalisation and the connected countering policies. It does so by examining two social movement theory variants: the framing theory and the resource mobilisation theory. The empirical case studies of Denmark and the Netherlands serve to contextualise the theoretical framework used in this dissertation. Qualitative research methods are the main form of data collection, through extensive desk research and expert interviews. This dissertation concludes that the Danish as well as the Dutch programme contains – to different extents – elements of social movement theory. Whereas the Aarhus model shows more comparison to the framing theory, the approach of the Netherlands appears to have stronger relation to the resource mobilisation theory. Societal inclusion is key in both preventing radicalisation and deradicalisation efforts. Based on the conducted research, this dissertation offers several recommendations to counter radicalisation. However, since countering radicalism proves to be challenging, the most ideal solution is to prevent radicalisation in the first place.

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