David Stevens (academic)

David Stevens is a Lecturer in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham.

RICU 'radicalisation' placement

Stevens undertook a placement at the RICU from November 2007 to March 2008. The placement funded jointly by the Home Office and the FCO was undertaken under the auspices of the ESRC in a project titled Communications Streams and Radicalisation. The purpose of the placement was to 'conduct a study of radical weblogs (‘Blogs’) over the period of the placement, as well as to provide more general advice and assistance on RICU business.' According to the ESRC: 'the nature of this study is somewhat sensitive. Consequently, the exact aims and outcomes of the project will not be publicised.' This secrecy is unusual in ESRC funded research. The Council notes that 'In general terms, however, identification of a community of bloggers, and a hierarchical structuring in terms of importance forms its core business.'

Other information about the project includes:

In addition to this stand-alone project it was also agreed that participation in seminars, presentation of work, commenting on other issues of interest to RICU staff, and fortnightly reporting on issues of interest arising from Blog monitoring would be undertaken, as well as providing any specialist advice on fundamentalist recruitment and beliefs, as and when requested.

Affiliations

• Research, Information and Communications Unit, Undertook an ESRC placement (jointly funded with the FCO) on 'Communications streams and radicalisation' at the Unit from 01 Nov 2007 - 31 March 2008.

Donations

Stevens donated £10,000 on 4 May 2016 to Vote Leave, the campaign that persuaded British voters to withdraw from the EU on 23 June 2016.

Publications, Contact, Resources and Notes

Publications

• Stevens, D. and O’Hara K., (2015) The Devil’s Long Tail: Religious and Other Radicals in the Internet Marketplace. Oxford, Oxford University Press and Hurst Publishers.

• Stevens, D. and O’Hara, K., (2015). “Echo Chambers and Online Radicalism: Assessing the Internet’s Complicity in Violent Extremism”. Policy and Internet, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 401-422.

• Stevens, D. and Clayton, M., (2015). “Is the Free Market Acceptable to Everyone?” Res Publica, Vol. 21, No. 4, pp. 363-382

• Clayton, M. and Stevens, D., (2013). “When God Commands Disobedience: Political Liberalism and Unreasonable Religions”. Res Publica, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 65-84.

• Stevens, D., (2011). “Reasons to be Fearful, One, Two, Three: the ‘Preventing Violent Extremism’ Agenda”. British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 165-188.

• Stevens, D., (2009). “In Extremis: A Self-defeating Element in the ‘Preventing Violent Extremism’ Strategy”. The Political Quarterly, Vol. 80, No. 4, pp. 517-525.

• O’Hara, K. and Stevens, D., (2009). “The Devil’s Long Tail: Religious Moderation and Extremism on the Web. IEEE Intelligent Systems, Vol. 24, No. 6, pp. 37-43.

Contact

Address:School of Politics and International Relations

University of Nottingham

Nottingham

UK

Phone: +44 115 951 4529

Email:

Website:

Resources

See main article: Estimating network size and tracking information dissemination amongst Islamic blogs