'What is the 'Abu Sayyaf'? How labels shape reality
Professor Mark Turner presented a seminar on Wednesday 14 September on his paper ‘What is the ‘Abu Sayyaf’? How labels shape reality.
Mark is a Professor of Development Policy and Management at the University of Canberra. He has a longstanding interest in Philippine politics and has been undertaking research in the country for over 30 years. Among other achievements, he has published various articles and a book on the Abu Sayyaf and politics and development in the southern Philippines. Official sources and the media often represent the ‘Abu Sayyaf’ as a militant Islamist group or organization responsible for most atrocities in the southwest Philippines. Yet this assumption is irreconcilable with the many available descriptions of the armed group labeled ‘Abu Sayyaf’ since the early 1990s. To resolve this incongruity, the paper examines reigning perceptions of the ‘Abu Sayyaf’ in light of organization theory and network analysis. Is it an organization in the conventional sense of the term or is it something else and, if so, what is it?