Violence, Terrorism, and Identity Politics in Afghanistan: The Securitisation of Higher Education

KAUNERT, Christian and SAHAR, Arif (2021). Violence, Terrorism, and Identity Politics in Afghanistan: The Securitisation of Higher Education. Social Sciences, 10 (5).

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Open Access URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/10/5/150 (Published version)
Link to published version:: https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10050150

Abstract

This article investigates the securitisation of the higher education sector in Afghanistan by examining ‘hidden’ non-discursive practices as opposed to overt discursive threat construction. Non-discursive practices are framed by the habitus inherited from different social fields, whereas in Afghanistan, securitising actors converge from different habitus (e.g., institutions, professions, backgrounds) to bar the ‘other’ ethnic or social groups from resources and spaces which could empower these groups to become a pertinent threat, a fear, and a danger to the monopoly of the state elites over the state power and resources. The most prominent securitisation practices emerging from the data include mainly (1) the obstruction of the formation of critical ideas and politics; (2) the obstruction of economic opportunities; and (3) the obstruction of social justice. This article deploys a case study methodology and uses the Kabul University as its subject of investigation.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: ** From MDPI via Jisc Publications Router ** Licence for this article: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ **Journal IDs: eissn 2076-0760 **History: published 25-04-2021; accepted 16-04-2021
Uncontrolled Keywords: Afghanistan, securitisation, violence, higher education, identity politics, statebuilding
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10050150
SWORD Depositor: Colin Knott
Depositing User: Colin Knott
Date Deposited: 27 Apr 2021 10:49
Last Modified: 27 Apr 2021 11:00
URI: https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/28579

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