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Launched in 2004, Champ pénal/Penal Field is a free, open access electronic periodical. Multidisciplinary, it publishes robust contributions promoting the analysis of the sociological, political, historical and legal discourses, instruments and practices shaping the penal field.  Dedicated to bilingual publishing, it aims to facilitate an international academic dialogue; the journal accepts manuscript proposals and/or dossiers in either French or English.  It also sponsors an active translation policy of the texts/issues published on its site. It is now supported by the INSHS of the CNRS. The articles are to be sent to champ.penal@gmail.com

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Latest issue
34 | 2025
La « lutte contre la radicalisation »

Pérennisation d’un mot d’ordre et brouillage des frontières institutionnelles
The politics of counter-radicalization: perpetuating a watchword and blurring institutional boundaries
Edited by Camille Bayssat, Clément Beunas, Flora Hergon and Lili Soussoko
Quelque chose de suspect ?
More about this picture
Credits: Clément Beunas

For over a decade, counter-radicalization policies have become a central pillar of counter-terrorism in the French-speaking European area. These policies are conceived both upstream, as a form of preventive surveillance aimed at averting potential violent action, and downstream, as a corrective “deradicalization”. This doctrine raises important questions about the modalities and limits of the hybridization between the security state and the welfare state, as well as how professional and lay actors cooperate in the field of surveillance. The special issue explores these dimensions by bringing together empirical research conducted in France, Belgium, and Switzerland between 2017 and 2024 on the prevention of radicalization. Rather than focusing on a specific professional group, the contributions examine the implementation of these policies across a wide array of institutional sectors and at various levels of public policy. Through these case studies, the special issue highlights the emergence of a preventive continuum resulting from counter-radicalization policies. This continuum spans from spaces of heightened coercion such as places of detention to broader domains of social life where surveillance becomes more diffuse such as social, healthcare, and educational institutions where reporting practices for “radicalization” are increasingly normalized. Through various methodological approaches, contributions uncover two major trends of this preventive continuum. First, the significant expansion of social control primarily targeting some Muslim groups perceived as deviant. Secondly, the blurring of professional roles and a recurrent confusion between spheres of activity among the sectors involved.   

 

  • Camille Bayssat, Clément Beunas, Flora Hergon and Lili Soussoko
    Extension du contrôle social, confusion des rôles et incertitudes éthiques
    Studying Counter-Radicalisation. The Extension of Social Control, Role Confusion and Ethical Uncertainty
  • Clément Beunas and Lili Soussoko
    Frictions et coopérations dans les cellules de prévention de la radicalisation et d’accompagnement des familles
    Working together to prevent radicalisation. Frictions and cooperations in the French Prevention of Radicalisation and Families Support Units
  • Ahmed Ajil, Julien Fischmeister, Marine Venezia, Manon Jendly and Damien Scalia
    Une analyse des logiques préventionnistes « molles » à l’œuvre en Suisse et en Belgique face aux violences politico-idéologiquement motivées
    Resist, navigate, perpetuate? An analysis of “soft” preventionist logics at work in Switzerland and Belgium in response to politically and ideologically motivated violence
  • Aïcha Bounaga
    Paradoxes du travail social à l’heure de la lutte contre la radicalisation
    Controlling, Proposing, Being Surveilled: Paradoxes of Social Work in the Era of Counter-Radicalization
  • Camille Bayssat
    Le recodage d’une catégorie sécuritaire en une catégorie clinique
    Confronting Radicalization: Staying True to One’s Profession and Maintaining Established Practices. The Reframing of a Security Category into a Clinical Category
  • François Rinschbergh
    Enquête sur les tâtonnements réflexifs du Réseau de prise en charge des extrémismes et des radicalismes violents de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles.
    Construction and application of anti-radicalization policy in the French Community of Belgium. Investigation into the reflective practices of the Network for the prevention of violent extremism and radicalism of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation.
  • Flora Hergon
    Vigilance or denunciation? Citizen reports during the post-attack state of emergency in France

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