Page 74 - Šolsko polje, XXIX, 2018, no. 5-6: Radicalization, Violent Extremism and Conflicting Diversity, eds. Mitja Sardoč and Tomaž Deželan
P. 74
šolsko polje, letnik xxix, številka 5–6
To sum up, just as regular citizens, Croatian youth is facing the ills
of contemporary Croatia. They react by retracting from the public sphere
and ignoring potential means for active involvement in society and pol-
itics. This relatively gloomy picture of Croatian youth is to some extent
mitigated by the perception of young people being full of potential; how-
ever, they need to be given a change to exercise it adequately. After getting
the picture of an average (young) person in Croatia, our second goal was
to see what it means to be a radical in Croatia and how this perception re-
lates to the mainstream.
“Radical vs. Mainstream”
The analysis of responses from participants shows that young people were
able to do two things when conceptualising radicalism. First, they offered
their view on radicalism by contrasting it with the mainstream, which is
in agreement with our theoretical concept. Second, and rather impressive,
young people managed to identify the roots of radicalism.
When asked to explain the term radical, participants understood it
as a great change or a shift from the average. Thus, any oscillation from
something that is widely accepted and widespread in society is, from the
point of view of young people, radical.
The radical act is one that makes a great change, a turn from something that is
the norm, a norm that one society decides to set. We can suppose that the norm in
society in Croatia is centre-right, I don’t have any empirical evidence, but let’s just
assume it is – society does not have any far-right attitudes but is more prone to ac-
cept them than the values from the left. However, there are some elements from the
left that society embraces, for instance public services. Radicalisation is oscillation
from that norm, that’s how I see a radical citizen. (Zagreb)
Firstly, I’ d set a hypothesis that a radical citizen is a person that diverges from the
mainstream, for example that you are not in some liberal mainstream and have
some conservative opinion – that you are a fascist, a Nazi. A radical citizen is
someone like Željka Markić, who is Opus Dei. (Split)
Another example of a radical citizen is one on the other side of the ideological
spectrum who does not care about anything apart from progressive values, such
as LGBT rights, gender rights…. I think this is a bit premature for our country.
(Split)
For radicals, it is important to have a certain set of values which cre-
ates solidarity within the group.
72
To sum up, just as regular citizens, Croatian youth is facing the ills
of contemporary Croatia. They react by retracting from the public sphere
and ignoring potential means for active involvement in society and pol-
itics. This relatively gloomy picture of Croatian youth is to some extent
mitigated by the perception of young people being full of potential; how-
ever, they need to be given a change to exercise it adequately. After getting
the picture of an average (young) person in Croatia, our second goal was
to see what it means to be a radical in Croatia and how this perception re-
lates to the mainstream.
“Radical vs. Mainstream”
The analysis of responses from participants shows that young people were
able to do two things when conceptualising radicalism. First, they offered
their view on radicalism by contrasting it with the mainstream, which is
in agreement with our theoretical concept. Second, and rather impressive,
young people managed to identify the roots of radicalism.
When asked to explain the term radical, participants understood it
as a great change or a shift from the average. Thus, any oscillation from
something that is widely accepted and widespread in society is, from the
point of view of young people, radical.
The radical act is one that makes a great change, a turn from something that is
the norm, a norm that one society decides to set. We can suppose that the norm in
society in Croatia is centre-right, I don’t have any empirical evidence, but let’s just
assume it is – society does not have any far-right attitudes but is more prone to ac-
cept them than the values from the left. However, there are some elements from the
left that society embraces, for instance public services. Radicalisation is oscillation
from that norm, that’s how I see a radical citizen. (Zagreb)
Firstly, I’ d set a hypothesis that a radical citizen is a person that diverges from the
mainstream, for example that you are not in some liberal mainstream and have
some conservative opinion – that you are a fascist, a Nazi. A radical citizen is
someone like Željka Markić, who is Opus Dei. (Split)
Another example of a radical citizen is one on the other side of the ideological
spectrum who does not care about anything apart from progressive values, such
as LGBT rights, gender rights…. I think this is a bit premature for our country.
(Split)
For radicals, it is important to have a certain set of values which cre-
ates solidarity within the group.
72
