Peer-reviewed journal articles by Paul Joosse
Encyclopedia of Heroism Studies, 2024
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Politics & Religion, 2023
QAnon is beginning to gain attention in scholarly circles, but these sources often disagree about... more QAnon is beginning to gain attention in scholarly circles, but these sources often disagree about how to categorize the movement. This amounts to the meta-dispute between those who view QAnon primarily as a religious "cult," and those who grant it greater credibility as a political populist movement. Using quantitative and qualitative methods we test the proposition that QAnon could be a mix of both. Results from both analyses suggest that QAnon is best understood primarily as a political populist movement, but one that utilizes religious rhetoric. The findings thus highlight the asymmetric nature of the conflation of religion and politics in the contemporary American civil sphere.
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Sociological Theory, 2023
Moving beyond frameworks of charisma scholarship that stress antagonism between charisma and esta... more Moving beyond frameworks of charisma scholarship that stress antagonism between charisma and establishment society, this article discerns and theoretically accounts for more mutualistic forms of influence between charismatic leaders and elite representatives of traditional or rational-legal institutions. Specifically, we combine contemporary work in the cultural sociology of charisma with Girard's notion of mimesis to provide a theory of charismatic mimicry; we explain situations where, rather than opposing the charismatic leader, elites align themselves with the new sources of legitimacy being proffered by the charismatic leader. At times, these institutional elites even co-opt new charismatic protocols into their own vocabularies of leadership. We demonstrate the usefulness of our model for interpreting the case of the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and his encounters with European leaders.
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Critical Sociology, 2022
This paper explores the role anger plays in charismatic movements. Although scholars have long re... more This paper explores the role anger plays in charismatic movements. Although scholars have long recognized the importance of emotions to the etiology of charisma, they tend to focus on mutual affection among leaders and followers, paying less attention to how anger-and particularly its subspecies, ressentiment-patterns charismatic power. Drawing on literature from political science, populism research, and the cultural sociology of charisma, we argue that ressentiment, which is associated with self-disvalue and an invidious need to blame outsiders, is key to theorizing the emotional energy that charisma delivers to revolutionary upheaval. The Weberian source for the intervention is his lesser known concept of 'berserk-charisma'. Reorienting the focus of charisma research to account for its aggressive, 'outward' dimension has the benefit of drawing us closer to the vision Weber had for its social-historical relevance. We demonstrate our insights using the case of charismatic/populist support for Trump.
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Modern Folk Devils: Contemporary Constructions of Evil, 2021
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Theory and Society, 2020
Working beyond the inclination to inaugurate alternative theoretical traditions alongside canonic... more Working beyond the inclination to inaugurate alternative theoretical traditions alongside canonical sociology, this article demonstrates the value of recovering latent gender theory from within classic concepts-in this case, Weber's "charisma." Close readings of Weber reveal, (a) tools for theorizing extraordinary, non-masculinist agency, and, (b) clues that account for the conventional wisdom (popular and scholastic) that charisma is "not for women." While contemporary movements may be tempted to eschew charismatic leadership per se because of legacies of dominance by men, there is value in Weber's formulation, which anticipated the performative turn in social theory that would destabilize biologistic gender ontologies. Value in this exchange also flows back to Weber: by confronting his intermittent tendency to describe charisma in terms that we now recognize as "customs of manly power," we reveal heretofore unseen imperfections (i.e., traditionalist modes of legitimation) in his ideal-type. This engagement thus demonstrates an empowering mutuality between contemporary gender theory and "the classics." The article ends by theorising the nexus of gender and charisma in the case of Trump, pointing to possibilities for vitiating Donald Trump's charisma, as well as for anti-Trumpian charisma.
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European Journal of Criminology, 2019
Working from a narrative criminological framework, this article distinguishes and describes the '... more Working from a narrative criminological framework, this article distinguishes and describes the 'narrative of rebellion' as a generic form that can be encountered widely in situations of asymmetrical struggle. Because narratives of rebellion furnish their tellers with agentic potential across various stages of the 'rebellious career' (from contemplation, to participation, to capture, and ultimately to peril), they are desirable cultural accoutrements for bringing into seditious struggle. Rebellion stories typically (a) subsume individuals within collective avatars that are represented as existing somehow 'outside of life'-often through legendary martyrdom, (b) advance plots that draw causal connections between failure/death and regenerative proliferation 'from below,' and (c) promulgate of a sense of solidarity with many as-yet unseen fellow travelers. These features offer protective resources for rebels engaging in criminal resistance, while also providing a framework for sense-making that, rather than obfuscating danger (a prominent feature of existing theories of rebellious participation), offers interpretive resources for contending with the likelihood of a perilous fate.
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Social Forces, 2018
This article conducts a negative reading of Weber’s ideal type of charismatic authority, seeking ... more This article conducts a negative reading of Weber’s ideal type of charismatic authority, seeking to anticipate and discern hidden social interactants that are implicated in his descriptions of charismatic social processes. In so doing, this article advances the “charismatic counter-role” as an umbrella term that captures the performative bearing of a variety of actors on processes of charismatic interaction. Specifically, in addition to devoted followers (already much discussed in the literature), this typology contains unworthy challengers (competitors who fall short when judged by the new terms of legitimacy that the charismatic leader creatively establishes); and colossal players (interlocutors that are appropriately “to scale” for highlighting the extraordinary missions to which the charismatic leader aspires). Together, these charismatic counter-roles interact in ways that comprise a charismatic social system that gives a better account than has heretofore been available for the unstoppable momentum of charismatic challenges. Using the “Trump phenomenon” of 2015–2016 as its empirical source, and employing analytical tools from symbolic interactionist and performative approaches to social theory, this article has implications for future studies of how charisma destabilizes traditional and/or rational-legal social orders.
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Sociological Theory, 2017
While several studies have explored the interactional dynamics of charismatic power, most have ne... more While several studies have explored the interactional dynamics of charismatic power, most have neglected the role of what Weber termed the charismatic aristocracy. This article revives the classical concept to respond to contemporary calls for performative, follower-centric approaches to charisma. Specifically, the charismatic aristocracy is placed at the center of an analysis of a reiterative moment in charismatization: when influential followers generate content for the emerging charismatic persona. In these germinal moments, the dialogical nature of charisma is most clear, precisely because it is then that charismatic leaders often are not themselves confident in their status and can be found responding to instructional cues—indeed following the lead—of those positioning themselves as obsequious followers. Drawing on 10 years of observations, multistage interviews, and media collections, I provide an interactionist account of the charismatic emergence of John de Ruiter, leader of a successful new religious movement. I conclude by tabling a model that conceives of the charismatic aristocracy as an important fulcrum for expectation, affectation, and recognition in charismatic interactions.
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British Journal of Criminology, 2017
Working beyond latently Durkheimian figurations of moral panic which depict a dialectic between '... more Working beyond latently Durkheimian figurations of moral panic which depict a dialectic between 'right-thinkers' and folk devils, this article integrates charismatic entrepreneurs into a tripartite model that sheds light on two new pathways of interaction that are relevant for the sociology of morality. First, charismatic leaders can outflank traditional leaders' aspersions of folk devils, taking the principle of 'one-upmanship' to an extraordinary (and therewith charismatic) extreme. Second, charismatic leaders can creatively subvert traditional mores, overturning value tables to 'bedevil' traditional leaders. Because moral panic and charismatic enthusiasm implicate distinct, complementary, and unitary social processes, I argue that, taken together, the work of Max Weber and Stanley Cohen offer a more theoretically profitable vision of moral denaturation and reformulation than either would alone. Donald Trump's charismatic ascension during his 2015-16 US Presidential campaign is used to illustrate the theoretical contribution.
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Journal of Classical Sociology, 2014
This article seeks to demonstrate that implicit within Weber’s writings on charisma are tools tha... more This article seeks to demonstrate that implicit within Weber’s writings on charisma are tools that can enable a processual, social constructionist understanding of charismatic formation. A corollary of this point is that Weber’s writings represent an historically crucial turning point in the progression from a Carlylian idea of leaders as inherently powerful to a non-essentialist, sociological perspective, and that Weber’s inspiration for this progression is best understood not through reference to his nineteenth-century forbearers in the social sciences, but rather in his contrast with the very few theological writers (namely Rudolph Sohm and the writers of the New Testament) who actually had employed charisma as a term prior to Weber’s famous appropriation of it. A reinterpretation and retranslation of Weber’s writings on charisma that gives priority to the social constructionist elements in his thought can provide tools for navigating through many of the interpretational controversies that have plagued charisma research.
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Sociology of Religion, 2012
Taking inspiration from Goffman's dramaturgical metaphor of sociality, this article explores the ... more Taking inspiration from Goffman's dramaturgical metaphor of sociality, this article explores the dynamics involved in the presentation of the charismatic self in everyday life, with a focus on the new religious movement led by John de Ruiter. The concept of “the everyday” was central to the thought of both Erving Goffman and Max Weber, and I illustrate how a marriage of insights from both thinkers can provide new opportunities for understanding the causes of charismatic disenchantment. Specifically, I focus on instances of discrepancy between de Ruiter's charismatic and noncharismatic roles. Among the various alternative, noncharismatic images of de Ruiter that are in circulation, those of psychological and moral deviance produced and propounded by the countercult movement are less germane to processes of deconversion than simple “ordinary guy” roles that devotees glimpse during backstage encounters with him.
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British Journal of Criminology, 2015
Recently, the Somali Diaspora has found itself at the centre of heightened security concerns surr... more Recently, the Somali Diaspora has found itself at the centre of heightened security concerns surrounding the proliferation of international terrorist networks and their recruitment strategies. These concerns have reached new levels since the absorption of al-Shabaab into al-Qaeda in 2012. Based on a qualitative analysis of interviews with 118 members of Canada’s largest Somali community, this article draws upon narrative criminology to reverse the ‘why they joined’ question that serves as the predicate for much recent radicalization scholarship, and instead explores, ‘why they would never join.’ We encounter Somali-Canadians equipping themselves with sophisticated counternarratives that vitiate the enticements of al-Shabaab. Particularly, notions of ‘coolness,’ ‘trickery,’ and ‘religious perversion’ mediate participants’ perceptions of al-Shabaab, and enable a self-empowering rejection of its recruitment narratives. In particular, we find resonances between the narratives of non-recruits and ‘bogeyman’ narratives that exist commonly in many cultures. The efficacy of these narratives for resilience is three-fold, positioning the recruiters as odious agents, recruits as weak-minded dupes, and our participants as knowledgeable story-tellers who can forewarn others against recruitment to al-Shabaab.
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Journal of Contemporary Religion, Nov 2006
Charismatic authority, as Max Weber originally conceived it, is predicated on followers’ percepti... more Charismatic authority, as Max Weber originally conceived it, is predicated on followers’ perceptions that their leader possesses superhuman or extraordinary powers. This article points to a novel link between silence and charismatic authority by examining the new religious movement (NRM) led by John de Ruiter and showing the important role that interpersonal silence plays in the social construction of his superhuman status. Specifically, de Ruiter's management of three distinct aspects or qualities of interpersonal silence allows him to perform seemingly miraculous feats for his devotees. Firstly, the projection-eliciting aspect, of interpersonal silence fosters the belief within devotees that de Ruiter has the ability to speak to the specific personal needs of people whom he has never met. Secondly, the punitive aspect of silence enables de Ruiter to perform superhuman displays of power over others at meetings. Thirdly, de Ruiter's use of silence fosters the belief that he has a miraculous ability to form intimate bonds with complete strangers, simply by gazing at them. To familiarize readers with this NRM, the article begins with a description of the group's culture, belief system, form of worship, methods of generating revenue, and recruitment strategies.
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Crime Media Culture, 2012
Over the past decade and a half, North America has seen a rash of environmentally motivated arson... more Over the past decade and a half, North America has seen a rash of environmentally motivated arsons. One group in particular, the clandestine Earth Liberation Front (ELF), has targeted ski resorts, genetic research labs, SUV dealerships, and forestry buildings, leading James Jarboe of the FBI to declare the ELF the “number one” domestic terrorist threat facing the USA. This article analyses the social construction of the “ecoterrorist threat” in the pages of the New York Times. Various stakeholders—including ELF spokespersons, moderate environmentalists, corporate interests, and state agencies—have sought to influence the way that media covers the ELF. Ultimately, much to the chagrin of ELF spokespersons, discourses of ecoterrorism have normalized in mainstream media, which regularly frames the spokespersons and activists as “dangerous clowns.” In turn, this coverage has prevented the expression of the ELF’s ideology, foreclosing the potential for the mainstream media to represent as legitimate the concerns of the ELF. I argue that blame for this failure rests in part with certain implications of the ELF’s organizational strategy of “leaderless resistance,” which—unlike civil disobedience movements of the past—is predicated on having its actors remain unsympathetically faceless and nameless.
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Terrorism and Political Violence, 2017
‘Leaderless resistance’ and ‘lone wolf terrorism’ are concepts that have steadily gained importa... more ‘Leaderless resistance’ and ‘lone wolf terrorism’ are concepts that have steadily gained importance in in the study of oppositional subcultures and terrorist groups, being use to describe the operational realities of a variety of terrorisms, from groups like al-Qaeda to Anders Breivik. In this article, I seek to describe leaderless resistance as a rhetorical construct, a meaning-conferring ‘ideology of effervescence’ that lifts the spirits of both movement progenitors who advocate the strategy as well as incipient lone wolves who consider responding to their exhortations. Through an examination of the case of Wiebo Ludwig and the EnCana pipeline bombings of 2008-2009, I show how these rhetorics emerge in the interactions between activists and their political enemies. With this conception, we can, a) understand more fully the discursive/rhetorical dynamics involved in asymmetrical struggle, b) problematize the acceptance of the organizational reality of leaderless resistance in the terrorism literature, and, c) question the assertion of some terrorism scholarship that refers to leaderless resistance and other ideologies of effervescence as hallmarks of the ‘new terrorism.’
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Terrorism and Political Violence, 2007
Leaderless resistance is a strategy of opposition that allows for and encourages individuals or s... more Leaderless resistance is a strategy of opposition that allows for and encourages individuals or small cells to engage in acts of political violence entirely independent of any hierarchy of leadership or network of support. This article examines the development of the leaderless resistance strategy by the radical right and more recently by the radical environmentalist movement. While both movements use leaderless resistance to avoid detection, infiltration, and prosecution by the state, environmental groups like the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) benefit additionally because of the ideological inclusiveness that leaderless resistance fosters. Historically, ideological cleavages have rendered radical environmental groups such as Earth First! less effective than they would have been otherwise. Using leaderless resistance, however, the ELF eliminates all ideology extraneous to the specific cause of halting the degradation of nature. This elimination enables the ELF to mobilize a greater number of ‘‘direct actions.’’
Keywords: Earth First!, Earth Liberation Front (ELF), eco-terrorism (ecoterrorism), environmentalism, leaderless resistance, radical environmentalism, terrorism
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Since 1992, clandestine radical environmentalist cells, calling themselves the Earth Liberation F... more Since 1992, clandestine radical environmentalist cells, calling themselves the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), have carried out arson attacks in an effort to punish corporations for environmentally deleterious practices. I examine the radical environmental movement and find that its recent rise to prominence and notoriety is part and parcel of the larger development of the more general anti-globalization/anti-capitalist movement. Specifically, I examine how, despite its libertarian conservative origins, the ideology of Earth First! changed after an influx of new members with anti-state, anarchist sympathies. Finally, I assess the applicability of three major criticisms of “globalization from below” to the case of the ELF, namely: a) that its preoccupation with the transnational sphere and abandonment of electoral politics is misguided, b) that direct actions such as property destruction are counterproductive to the wider aims of the movement, and, c) that its strategies of contention are too episodic, and do very little to encourage practical, inclusive, local, and sustained action in the service of global justice.
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Interviews by Paul Joosse
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Peer-reviewed journal articles by Paul Joosse
Keywords: Earth First!, Earth Liberation Front (ELF), eco-terrorism (ecoterrorism), environmentalism, leaderless resistance, radical environmentalism, terrorism
Interviews by Paul Joosse
Keywords: Earth First!, Earth Liberation Front (ELF), eco-terrorism (ecoterrorism), environmentalism, leaderless resistance, radical environmentalism, terrorism