The Term ‘Lone Wolf’ and its Alternatives: patterns of Public and Academic Use from 2000 to 2020

Prominent cases of terror attacks planned and perpetrated by individuals have generated an ongoing public and academic debate about how to understand this phenomenon. The moniker "lone wolf" stands at the center of this debate. In this Research Note, we highlight three overarching points o...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:  
Bibliographische Detailangaben
1. VerfasserIn: Berntzen, Lars Erik (VerfasserIn)
Beteiligte: Bjørgo, Tore
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: 2021
In: Perspectives on terrorism
Jahr: 2021, Band: 15, Heft: 3, Seiten: 132-141
Online Zugang: Volltext (kostenfrei)
Journals Online & Print:
Lade...
Verfügbarkeit prüfen: HBZ Gateway
Schlagwörter:

MARC

LEADER 00000caa a22000002 4500
001 1868816559
003 DE-627
005 20231211144322.0
007 cr uuu---uuuuu
008 231030s2021 xx |||||o 00| ||eng c
035 |a (DE-627)1868816559 
035 |a (DE-599)KXP1868816559 
040 |a DE-627  |b ger  |c DE-627  |e rda 
041 |a eng 
084 |a 2,1  |2 ssgn 
100 1 |a Berntzen, Lars Erik  |e VerfasserIn  |0 (DE-588)1243609036  |0 (DE-627)1774595745  |4 aut 
109 |a Berntzen, Lars Erik  |a Berntzen, Lars Erik Nese 
245 1 4 |a The Term ‘Lone Wolf’ and its Alternatives  |b patterns of Public and Academic Use from 2000 to 2020  |c by Lars Erik Berntzen and Tore Bjørgo 
264 1 |c 2021 
300 |b Diagramme 
336 |a Text  |b txt  |2 rdacontent 
337 |a Computermedien  |b c  |2 rdamedia 
338 |a Online-Ressource  |b cr  |2 rdacarrier 
500 |a Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 140-141 
520 |a Prominent cases of terror attacks planned and perpetrated by individuals have generated an ongoing public and academic debate about how to understand this phenomenon. The moniker "lone wolf" stands at the center of this debate. In this Research Note, we highlight three overarching points of criticism levelled at the use of this term: one conceptual, one normative and one empirical. While the solution to the latter problem primarily lies in being stringent, proposed solutions for the first two problems involved the exchange of the metaphor "lone wolf" with terms such as "lone actor" and "solo terrorist". This Research Note focuses on patterns in public, popular cultural and academic use of "lone wolf" as well as the proposed alternatives "lone actor" and "solo terrorist". It does so by utilizing data from Google Trends, Google Books Ngram Viewer and Google Scholar for the period 2000 to 2020. Trends in Google searches across the world indicate a moderate increase in public attention whereas using English language literature as a proxy for popular cultural attention shows a steady increase. Finally, academic use of the term "lone wolf" exploded in the aftermath of the July 22, 2011 terror attacks and has remained at high levels ever since. Among the proposed alternatives to "lone wolf", only "lone actor" has truly gained academic prominence. While overcoming some of the issues with the "lone wolf" metaphor, patterns in the data indicate that the neutrality and abstract nature of the term "lone actor" also comes with some drawbacks. To help counteract this, we suggest that researchers avoid using shorthand versions and consistently use the full term "lone actor terrorist". 
650 4 |a Big Data 
650 4 |a Concept 
650 4 |a lone actor terrorist 
650 4 |a lone wolf 
650 4 |a Metaphor 
700 1 |a Bjørgo, Tore  |d 1958-  |e VerfasserIn  |0 (DE-588)172627818  |0 (DE-627)697562050  |0 (DE-576)168260662  |4 aut 
773 0 8 |i Enthalten in  |t Perspectives on terrorism  |d Vienna : Terrorism Research Initiative (TRI), 2007  |g 15(2021), 3, Seite 132-141  |h Online-Ressource  |w (DE-627)77139988X  |w (DE-600)2741257-X  |w (DE-576)396693253  |x 2334-3745  |7 nnns 
773 1 8 |g volume:15  |g year:2021  |g number:3  |g pages:132-141 
856 4 0 |u https://www.jstor.org/stable/27030886  |x Verlag  |z kostenfrei  |3 Volltext 
936 u w |d 15  |j 2021  |e 3  |h 132-141 
951 |a AR 
ELC |a 1 
LOK |0 000 xxxxxcx a22 zn 4500 
LOK |0 001 4399907266 
LOK |0 003 DE-627 
LOK |0 004 1868816559 
LOK |0 005 20231211144322 
LOK |0 008 231030||||||||||||||||ger||||||| 
LOK |0 040   |a DE-21-110  |c DE-627  |d DE-21-110 
LOK |0 092   |o n 
LOK |0 852   |a DE-21-110 
LOK |0 852 1  |9 00 
LOK |0 935   |a krzo 
OAS |a 1 
ORI |a WA-MARC-krimdoka001.raw