Owen D Thomas
@drowendthomas.bsky.social
Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations, University of Exeter, UK
🔗 The article is open access at doi.org/10.1177/1354...
May 14, 2025 at 3:53 PM
🔗 The article is open access at doi.org/10.1177/1354...
11/ 🔗 Read the full paper here: doi.org/10.1177/2399...
@cais-exeter.bsky.social @researchspin.bsky.social
@cais-exeter.bsky.social @researchspin.bsky.social
March 20, 2025 at 10:35 AM
11/ 🔗 Read the full paper here: doi.org/10.1177/2399...
@cais-exeter.bsky.social @researchspin.bsky.social
@cais-exeter.bsky.social @researchspin.bsky.social
10/ Why does this matter?
🔹 The idea that violence in global cities like London is an aberration furthers myths about how violence is meant to happen to some people and places but not others.
🔹 Denial undermines social justice; it forecloses the pursuit of structural change.
🔹 The idea that violence in global cities like London is an aberration furthers myths about how violence is meant to happen to some people and places but not others.
🔹 Denial undermines social justice; it forecloses the pursuit of structural change.
March 20, 2025 at 10:35 AM
10/ Why does this matter?
🔹 The idea that violence in global cities like London is an aberration furthers myths about how violence is meant to happen to some people and places but not others.
🔹 Denial undermines social justice; it forecloses the pursuit of structural change.
🔹 The idea that violence in global cities like London is an aberration furthers myths about how violence is meant to happen to some people and places but not others.
🔹 Denial undermines social justice; it forecloses the pursuit of structural change.
9/ Our findings challenge the idea that social media & public discourse disrupt elite narratives. Instead, sensemaking often discredited or sidelined alternative ideas for peace and security.
March 20, 2025 at 10:35 AM
9/ Our findings challenge the idea that social media & public discourse disrupt elite narratives. Instead, sensemaking often discredited or sidelined alternative ideas for peace and security.
8/ "It is what it is”
🔹 Calls for systemic change were dismissed.
🔹 Responses seen as ‘political’ were rejected.
🔹 Proposed ‘solutions’ were often fatalist—barriers, trampolines, walking sticks—rather than tackling root causes.
🔹 Calls for systemic change were dismissed.
🔹 Responses seen as ‘political’ were rejected.
🔹 Proposed ‘solutions’ were often fatalist—barriers, trampolines, walking sticks—rather than tackling root causes.
March 20, 2025 at 10:35 AM
8/ "It is what it is”
🔹 Calls for systemic change were dismissed.
🔹 Responses seen as ‘political’ were rejected.
🔹 Proposed ‘solutions’ were often fatalist—barriers, trampolines, walking sticks—rather than tackling root causes.
🔹 Calls for systemic change were dismissed.
🔹 Responses seen as ‘political’ were rejected.
🔹 Proposed ‘solutions’ were often fatalist—barriers, trampolines, walking sticks—rather than tackling root causes.
7/ "It’s not us, it’s them”
🔹 Blame was assigned to ‘others’—enemies, traitors & strangers.
🔹 Grenfell victims often racialised & seen as ‘other’; politicians accused of ‘hiding the facts’.
🔹 Responses to London Bridge invoked a war with Islam, homogenising Britain’s Muslim communities as suspect.
🔹 Blame was assigned to ‘others’—enemies, traitors & strangers.
🔹 Grenfell victims often racialised & seen as ‘other’; politicians accused of ‘hiding the facts’.
🔹 Responses to London Bridge invoked a war with Islam, homogenising Britain’s Muslim communities as suspect.
March 20, 2025 at 10:35 AM
7/ "It’s not us, it’s them”
🔹 Blame was assigned to ‘others’—enemies, traitors & strangers.
🔹 Grenfell victims often racialised & seen as ‘other’; politicians accused of ‘hiding the facts’.
🔹 Responses to London Bridge invoked a war with Islam, homogenising Britain’s Muslim communities as suspect.
🔹 Blame was assigned to ‘others’—enemies, traitors & strangers.
🔹 Grenfell victims often racialised & seen as ‘other’; politicians accused of ‘hiding the facts’.
🔹 Responses to London Bridge invoked a war with Islam, homogenising Britain’s Muslim communities as suspect.
6/ "This is not who we are”
🔹 Violence was framed as an exception, belonging to another place or time.
🔹 Both events were treated as disconnected from ‘our way of life’—even though global connections made them possible.
🔹 Violence was framed as an exception, belonging to another place or time.
🔹 Both events were treated as disconnected from ‘our way of life’—even though global connections made them possible.
March 20, 2025 at 10:35 AM
6/ "This is not who we are”
🔹 Violence was framed as an exception, belonging to another place or time.
🔹 Both events were treated as disconnected from ‘our way of life’—even though global connections made them possible.
🔹 Violence was framed as an exception, belonging to another place or time.
🔹 Both events were treated as disconnected from ‘our way of life’—even though global connections made them possible.
5/ We analysed 8,000+ social media comments, news op-eds & elite statements. We identify three modes of sensemaking—'discourses of denial'—that became ‘common-sensical’, defining the parameters of who or what was to blame and what should be done:
March 20, 2025 at 10:35 AM
5/ We analysed 8,000+ social media comments, news op-eds & elite statements. We identify three modes of sensemaking—'discourses of denial'—that became ‘common-sensical’, defining the parameters of who or what was to blame and what should be done:
4/ Academic research suggests that global cities like London are entangled in the exploitative global hierarchy (see @idanewid.bsky.social), which is implicated in producing the fragility of places from which the threat of terrorism emerges. Would such connections be part of public sensemaking?
March 20, 2025 at 10:35 AM
4/ Academic research suggests that global cities like London are entangled in the exploitative global hierarchy (see @idanewid.bsky.social), which is implicated in producing the fragility of places from which the threat of terrorism emerges. Would such connections be part of public sensemaking?
3/ The way societies make sense of disorder reveals that we are ‘already part of communities of sense’ that dictate the boundaries of inclusivity & care—shaping how we think & feel about where, when & to whom violence is expected to happen (@jamcjo.bsky.social).
March 20, 2025 at 10:35 AM
3/ The way societies make sense of disorder reveals that we are ‘already part of communities of sense’ that dictate the boundaries of inclusivity & care—shaping how we think & feel about where, when & to whom violence is expected to happen (@jamcjo.bsky.social).
2/ In 2017, the London Bridge terror attack & Grenfell Tower fire unsettled common ideas about London as a ‘global city’—a place where violence might occur, but not a violent place. How did people make sense of this?
March 20, 2025 at 10:35 AM
2/ In 2017, the London Bridge terror attack & Grenfell Tower fire unsettled common ideas about London as a ‘global city’—a place where violence might occur, but not a violent place. How did people make sense of this?