A world turned upside down: reinforcing the symbolic order after the Vienna terrorist attack

ABSTRACT

Terrorist attacks do not just cause devastation and casualties, but also constitute a symbolic battlefield. Drawing on Bourdieu’s field analytical framework, this article suggests that a terrorist attack puts pressure on the symbolic underpinnings of the established social order. It irritates the taken-for-granted reality, and through the use of violence, brings a competing possible into the universe of discourse. Therefore, the counterterrorist response has a twofold reality. It serves not only to restore physical safety, but also to release symbolic pressure and thus, reinforce the symbolic underpinnings of the social order. Using the example of press conferences in the aftermath of the Vienna terrorist attack in 2020, this article examines the discursive moves through which state actors strive to release symbolic pressure imposed by the attack. Thus, the article lays bare the symbolic dimension of counterterrorism and contributes to its more nuanced understanding.

KEYWORDS:

• Terrorism
• symbolic pressure
• pressure release
• symbolic battleground
• counterterrorism
• symbolic counterstrike

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Alyssa Furber for proofreading the paper and Karin Scaria-Braunstein, Univ. of Graz, who was involved in early discussions about the symbolic dimension of the terrorist attack and the response to it.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Data availability statement

The press conferences analysed in this paper were live broadcasted and open source. Copies are available on the ministries webpages (federal chancellery BKA), social media profiles (e.g. Facebook profile of the ministry of inner affairs BMI), or can be found on publicly available platforms (e.g. youtube). Further access to the media library of the Austrian broadcast corporation (ORF) can be requested.

Notes

1. The article focuses on the battlefront between the established order and the terrorist ideology. Anyway, the “established” order is subject to permanent struggles between “competing possibles,” which may also be fueled by a severe irritation (e.g. Boin, McConnell, and Hart 2008). But these are not the subject of this study.

Additional information

Funding

No funding applied.

Notes on contributors

Sandra Maria Pfister

Sandra M. Pfister is senior researcher at the Disaster Competence Network Austria (DCNA), lecturer at the University of Graz, and doctoral student of Sociology at the University of Graz.