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Short course

Language and extremism: Implications for risk management and safeguarding

This one-day short course examines how language functions in extremist online communities, with a focus on male supremacist ideology and far-right nationalism. Using examples from manosphere forums and related digital spaces, the course introduces key linguistic patterns and rhetorical tactics used to normalise ideas, build in-group identity, and legitimise harm. Participants will learn practical approaches for recognising and analysing extremist discourse, alongside an overview of relevant research tools and methods. We also consider implications for safeguarding, risk awareness, and violence reduction strategies. No prior linguistics training is required.

  • DeliveryInstructor-led training (in-person)
  • Study levelShort course
  • Estimated durationOne day
  • Start dateSeptember 2026 - specific date to be outlined
  • Course fee£350 (inc vat)

Overview

Professionals across education, policing, youth work, local government, social care, communications, and wider safeguarding contexts are increasingly required to make judgments about harmful or concerning language. This includes language that may signal ideological alignment, grievance, dehumanisation, conspiratorial thinking, misogyny, racism, anti-democratic sentiment, or support for extremist worldviews.

Despite this, many practitioners receive limited training in how language functions in such contexts. There is often uncertainty around how to distinguish between offensive language, provocative expression, identity performance, irony, taboo humour, repetition of online discourse, and language that may be relevant to safeguarding or risk management. Equally, there is a danger in assuming that particular words or phrases are self-evidently meaningful outside the communicative contexts in which they appear.

This one-day short course addresses that gap by equipping participants with a framework for thinking critically and systematically about language and extremism. It offers an applied introduction to how discourse can be analysed, what linguistic patterns may matter, and how such analysis can inform professional judgment and multi-agency decision-making.

Learning Outcomes

  • Identify key linguistic and discursive features commonly associated with extremist movements and radicalising narratives.

  • Analyse how language constructs in-groups, out-groups, grievance, threat, legitimacy, and moral urgency.

  • Distinguish between provocative, harmful, and potentially risk-relevant language through contextual analysis rather than keyword recognition alone.

  • Evaluate how linguistic evidence may contribute to safeguarding and risk-management decisions.

  • Reflect critically on the ethical, practical, and evidential limits of using language analysis in high-stakes settings.

Who will benefit ?

This course is intended for professionals whose roles may involve identifying, assessing, documenting, or responding to concerning discourse, including: 

Safeguarding leads and safeguarding teams, Education and student-support professionals, Police and community safety practitioners, Prevent, safeguarding, and counter-extremism professionals, Youth workers, Local authority staff, Social care professionals, Communications and policy professionals, Third-sector professionals working in harm prevention or community resilience.

No prior training in linguistics is required.

Course in depth

This one-day training course is delivered in person by experienced language and extremism researchers, using anonymised or simulated textual extracts, selected social media posts or forum-style discourse, and short case studies.

What is included?

  • Session 1: Why language matters

    (45 minutes: framing and overview)

    1. Why discourse matters in extremism research and practice
    2. The relationship between language, identity, ideology, and action
    3. Language as a source of evidence

  • Session 2: Features of extremist discourse

    (60 minutes: concepts and key discourse features)

    1. Us vs them constructions
    2. Dehumanisation and delegitimisation
    3. Crisis, grievance, and victimhood narratives
    4. Calls to urgency, purity, or restoration
    5. Gendered discourse, including misogyny and masculinist grievance
    6. Coded, euphemistic, or indirect forms of extremist communication

  • Session 3: Discussion of workplace cases

    (45 minutes: context and interpretive challenges)

    1. Why keywords alone are insufficient
    2. Irony, quotation, repetition, and stance
    3. Platform norms and online vernaculars
    4. The difference between expression, affiliation, endorsement, and mobilisation
    5. Discussion of workplace cases and associated interpretive challenges

  • Session 4: Language in safeguarding and risk management

    (60 minutes: applications and limitations)

    1. What linguistic analysis can and cannot do
    2. Working alongside other forms of information
    3. Documentation, reporting, and escalation
    4. Communicating findings clearly and proportionately

  • Session 5: Applied case analysis

    (60 minutes: case-study workshop)

    1. Small-group analysis of anonymised or simulated case material
    2. Identifying patterns, risks, ambiguities, and limitations
    3. Translating analysis into practice-oriented recommendations

  • Session 6: Ethics, reflection, and next steps

    (30 minutes: wrap-up and professional reflection)

    1. Bias, over-interpretation, and disproportionate response
    2. Free expression and safeguarding tensions
    3. Accountability in high-stakes interpretation
    4. Summary and next steps

Schedule & Location

Course schedule: September 2026 – specific date to be confirmed.

The course will be delivered across a full day, with a morning session from 9:15am to 12:15pm and an afternoon session from 1:00pm to 4:00pm. Teaching will be structured around six interlinked sessions, combining short expert-led input with guided discussion, professional reflection, and applied case-study work. Each half of the day will include a 15-minute comfort break and a further 15-minute period for questions, discussion, and transition between activities.

Location

Birmingham City University
Curzon Building
Cardigan Street
Birmingham
B4 7BD

Fees and enrolment

Level: Short course

Cost: £350 (inc vat)

If you're interested in finding out more about this course or would like more information before you enrol, please register your interest and we'll be in touch with more information. 

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