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TITLE: Why Terrorist Ideologies are So Powerful
SPEAKER: Neil Smelser
EVENT DATE: 11/29/2006
RUNNING TIME: 54 minutes
DESCRIPTION:
Sociologist Neil J. Smelser presented a lecture titled "Why Are Terrorist Ideologies So Powerful." Smelser occupies the chair of the Countries and Cultures of the North in the Library's John W. Kluge Center, which sponsored the lecture. In his talk, Smelser goes beyond contemporary radical Islamic-inspired ideologies to cover extremist ideologies in general, some of which combine to generate terrorist activities. He discusses several subtopics on how ideologies can be a unique mix of meaningful cultural change and a way of assigning responsibility and blame. He talks about themes of ambivalence in ideologies, the rationalization of ideologies and the confrontation of terrorist and counter-terrorist ideologies.
Speaker Biography: Neil Smelser is professor emeritus of sociology at University of California, Berkeley. He also served as director of the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences in Stanford, Calif., from 1994 to 2001, and is considered by many to be one of the most highly respected sociologists of his time. A significant part of his research deals with collective behavior and social movements. He co-authored "Economy and Society" with Talcott Parsons, his Harvard mentor. Smelser is the author of 14 books, including "The Social Edges of Psychoanalysis" (University of California Press, 1999) and "Sociology" (Blackwell Publishers, 1994). In 2002 he co-edited the book "Terrorism: Perspectives from the Behavioral and Social Sciences."