Reading religious radicalization by Merton’s strain theory

This article aims to analyse the process of radicalization of young Western Muslims employing the Merton’s strain theory as an interpretative factor. Without necessarily underestimating other approaches, applying Merton’s theory to this field means choosing to deal with it mainly from a sociological point of view, taking into account its political, economic, structural and social characteristics and embedding the individual paths within this framework. As is known, in 1949 Merton conceived a ...