Rune Ellefsen

• Myklebust, Lars Henrik Ryther; Eide, Desiree; Arnevik, Espen Ajo; Dadras, Omid; De Pirro, Silvana & Ellefsen, Rune [Show all 14 contributors for this article] (2024). Evaluation of heroin-assisted treatment in Norway: protocol for a mixed methods study. BMC Health Services Research. ISSN 1472-6963. 24(1). doi: 10.1186/s12913-024-10767-w. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Background Opioid agonist treatment (OAT) for patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) has a convincing evidence base, although variable retention rates suggest that it may not be beneficial for all. One of the options to include more patients is the introduction of heroin-assisted treatment (HAT), which involves the prescribing of pharmaceutical heroin in a clinical supervised setting. Clinical trials suggest that HAT positively affects illicit drug use, criminal behavior, quality of life, and health. The results are less clear for longer-term outcomes such as mortality, level of function and social integration. This protocol describes a longitudinal evaluation of the introduction of HAT into the OAT services in Norway over a 5-year period. The main aim of the project is to study the individual, organizational and societal effects of implementing HAT in the specialized healthcare services for OUD. Methods The project adopts a multidisciplinary approach, where the primary cohort for analysis will consist of approximately 250 patients in Norway, observed during the period of 2022–2026. Cohorts for comparative analysis will include all HAT-patients in Denmark from 2010 to 2022 (N = 500) and all Norwegian patients in conventional OAT (N = 8300). Data comes from individual in-depth and semi-structured interviews, self-report questionnaires, clinical records, and national registries, collected at several time points throughout patients’ courses of treatment. Qualitative analyses will use a flexible inductive thematic approach. Quantitative analyses will employ a wide array of methods including bi-variate parametric and non-parametric tests, and various forms of multivariate modeling. Discussion The project’s primary strength lies in its comprehensive and longitudinal approach. It has the potential to reveal new insights on whether pharmaceutical heroin should be an integral part of integrated conventional OAT services to individually tailor treatments for patients with OUD. This could affect considerations about drug treatment even beyond HAT-specific topics, where an expanded understanding of why some do not succeed with conventional OAT will strengthen the knowledge base for drug treatment in general. Results will be disseminated to the scientific community, clinicians, and policy makers. Trial registration The study was approved by the Norwegian Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics (REK), ref.nr.:195733.

• Banafsheh, Azin; Ellefsen, Rune & Sandberg, Sveinung (2024). Racism and Resistance: Young Norwegian Minorities Fight Back. Tidsskrift for samfunnsforskning. ISSN 0040-716X. 65(1), p. 24–45. doi: 10.18261/tfs.65.1.2. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Mange etniske minoriteter opplever rasisme som et stort problem i Norge. Dette gjelder spesielt mikroaggresjoner basert på kulturelle forestillinger om at «det norske» er overlegent. I denne artikkelen beskriver vi ulike former for rasisme og legger vekt på hvordan disse ble motarbeidet gjennom det vi kaller hverdagsmotstand. Studien er basert på 41 kvalitative intervjuer med personer med minoritetsbakgrunn, hovedsakelig svarte, som deltok i Black Lives Matter-demonstrasjonene i Norge. Fem former for hverdagsrasisme var spesielt framtredende: skjellsord og nedsettende ytringer, forskjellsbehandling og diskriminering, antakelser om ikke å være «norsk», antakelser om lav sosial status og fordomsfull inkludering. Dette var i hovedsak mikroaggresjoner som fant sted i hverdagslig sosial samhandling. De fem vanligste reaksjonene på rasisme var forsøk på å motvirke den ved å ignorere, konfrontere, dele erfaringer, rapportere og demonstrere. Studien viser hvor sentralt det hverdagslige er for å forstå etniske minoriteters opplevelser av rasisme – og motstand. Vi argumenterer for at denne typen hverdagsmotstand, er viktigere enn både politisk protest og formelle rapporteringer. Dette er fordi hverdagen har en regelmessighet og kontinuerlig tilstedeværelse som andre former for motstand mangler. Minoriteter i Norge opplever mye hets og forskjellsbehandling, men de er ikke passive ofre. Denne studien viser hvordan de aktivt forhandler, håndterer og kjemper mot rasisme.

• Ellefsen, Rune (2023). Narkotikapolitikk i endring: Heroinklinikkenes oppkomst i Norge. Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs (NAD). ISSN 1455-0725. p. 1–19. doi: 10.1177/14550725231207251. Show summary

  Bruk av heroin for behandling av personer med rusmiddelavhengighet er nytt i Norge. Heroinklinikkene markerer et brudd med de siste ti-årenes narkotikapolitikk og rusbehandling. I denne artikkelen beskrives endringene i myndighetenes forståelse av «narkotikaproblemet» og hvordan det bør håndteres. Heroinklinikkene utforskes som uttrykk for slik endring. For å forklare hvorfor og hvordan disse omstridte klinikkene ble en realitet presenteres en to-delt analyse: først av ideologiske endringer i narkotikapolitikken fra 1960-tallet til i dag, og så av den politiske debatten om heroinklinikkene som tok fart fra 2007. Artikkelen argumenterer for at de ideologiske endringene på det narkotikapolitiske feltet i stor grad muliggjorde den senere politiske prosessen som endte med etablering av heroinklinikkene. Analysen identifiserer tre atskilte forståelser av narkotikaproblemet som har eksistert gjennom hele 60-års perioden, og tre motstridende tilnærminger til heroinklinikkene som ble synlige i den politiske debatten. Ved å diskutere sammenfallet mellom disse forståelsene og tilnærmingene over tid bidrar artikkelen med å forklare heroinklinikkenes oppkomst i en bredere narkotikapolitisk sammenheng.

• Ellefsen, Rune; Wüsthoff, Linda Elise & Arnevik, Espen Kristian Ajo (2023). Patients’ satisfaction with heroin-assisted treatment: a qualitative study. Harm Reduction Journal. ISSN 1477-7517. 20. doi: 10.1186/s12954-023-00808-8. Full text in Research Archive
• Ellefsen, Rune & Sjøen, Martin Meggele (2023). 10 Norway. In McNeil-Willson, Richard & Triandafyllidou, Anna (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Violent Extremism and Resilience. Routledge. ISSN 9781003267102. p. 153–167. doi: https:/doi.org/10.4324/9781003267102-12.
• Ellefsen, Rune; Jan, Jämte & Sjøen, Martin Meggele (2023). Key dilemmas in the prevention of radicalization and violent extremism. Journal for Deradicalization. ISSN 2363-9849. p. 115–144. Full text in Research Archive
• Ellefsen, Rune; Banafsheh, Azin & Sandberg, Sveinung (2022). Resisting racism in everyday life: from ignoring to confrontation and protest. Ethnic and Racial Studies. ISSN 0141-9870. 45(16), p. 435–457. doi: 10.1080/01419870.2022.2094716. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Racial discrimination takes many forms and so does opposition to it. In contrast to the dominant emphasis on institutional or state efforts to counter racism, we examine how members of racially minoritized groups resist racism in their everyday lives. Drawing on 41 qualitative interviews with young, mainly Black, people in Norway, we identify five distinct ways in which they actively counter racism, as opposed to passively accepting or adapting to it. Participants resisted racism by ignoring, confronting, sharing experiences about, reporting and protesting it. Our analysis explicates the characteristics, potential outcomes, and social function of such resistance to racism. The study contributes to the literature on everyday racism and antiracism by making evident how those at the receiving end negotiate and actively oppose racist experiences.

• Ellefsen, Rune & Jämte, Jan (2022). The causes, content and consequences of repression: A framework for analyzing protest control in the counter-extremism era. Social Movement Studies. ISSN 1474-2837. doi: 10.1080/14742837.2022.2067140. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Since the early 2000s, governments in many Western democracies have introduced policies and practices to prevent radicalization and violent extremism (PRVE). This has led to the formation of a new policy arena in which an increased number of actors are tasked with PRVE work. The diverse set of actors and methods involved affect social movements in new and complex ways, but also challenges the established knowledge and analytical focus of research on the repression of social movements. In this article, we propose a conceptual framework that attends to the causes, content and consequences of protest control. We use it to examine interaction between actors in the PRVE arena and to highlight issues that are underexplored in repression research. To elucidate these issues, we use empirical examples from our own research on measures to counter extremist milieus in the Nordic countries and the UK.

• Ellefsen, Rune & Sandberg, Sveinung (2022). Black Lives Matter: The Role of Emotions in Political Engagement. Sociology. ISSN 0038-0385. 56(6). doi: 10.1177/00380385221081385. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In the spring of 2020, the Black Lives Matter protests shook the Western world. Spreading from the USA, demonstrations diffused globally, especially to Europe, calling out racism in its different forms. Emotions ran high and were pivotal in igniting protests. The role of emotion in social movements has received renewed scholarly attention during the last decades. It plays an important role at every stage of protest, but few studies have traced its part in individuals’ shifting engagement over time. This study examines the role of emotion during the global wave of Black Lives Matter protests. Based on retrospective interviews with 38 participants in Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Norway, we identify the role of emotion before, during and after their participation. Our findings help explain how individual patterns of participation develop in the course of a wave of protest, and also provide insights into the consequences of the recent Black Lives Matter protests in Europe.

• Ellefsen, Rune & Sandberg, Sveinung (2022). Everyday Prevention of Radicalization: The impacts of family, peer and police intervention. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. ISSN 1057-610X. doi: 10.1080/1057610X.2022.2037185. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This study examines early intervention against individual radicalization. The data originate from interviews with young Muslims in Norway who had experienced interventions related to their own radicalization, or engaged in or witnessed interventions directed at a radicalized peer or relative. We find that informal interventions by family and friends were most prevalent in the data and played the most decisive role in interrupting radicalization, while police interventions were less common and had mixed results. Interventions by family or peers often came early in the radicalization process, were employed by trusted “insiders”, and took place as part of everyday life, thus having less detrimental consequences for radicalized individuals. We finally discuss the challenges of combining interventions by family members and friends with involvements from the police and security service.

• Banafsheh, Azin; Ellefsen, Rune & Sandberg, Sveinung (2021). "Jævla terrorist!" Muslimhets og hverdagsmotstand. In Ødegård, Guro & Pedersen, Willy (Ed.), UNGDOMMEN. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 978-82-02-73299-8. p. 317–335. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  De siste ti til tjue årene har frykten for islam på mange måter erstattet tradisjonell rasisme i Norge (Bangstad & Døving, 2015). Muslimhat, hets og antiislamisme preger hverdagen til de rundt 200 000 norske muslimene her. Skjeve blikk på gata, fiendtlige kommentarer og mer formell diskriminering er uttrykk for skepsis og fordommer mot islam. Noen ganger får retorikken også mer alvorlige utslag. Antiislamistisk retorikk var bakgrunnen for det største terrorangrepet på norsk jord, i 2011 (Berntzen & Sandberg, 2014). Senest i 2019 var det et nytt forsøk på massedrap i Bærum, med muslimer som mål. Bare tilfeldigheter gjorde at angrepet ikke fikk et større omfang, som terrorangrepet 22. juli. I et stort forskningsprosjekt har vi intervjuet 90 norske muslimer i alderen 18–32 år. Med utgangspunkt i disse intervjuene gir vi en oversikt over unge muslimers opplevelser av muslimhets. Hatvold, netthets og diskriminering får mye oppmerksomhet i media. Men den mest utbredte hetsen unge muslimer opplever, den som preger hverdagen deres, er nedlatende kommentarer, negativt ladete spørsmål og skjellsord, både fra fremmede og fra bekjente. Det er få samfunnsforskere som har undersøkt reaksjonene på slike ubehagelige hendelser. Vi ser derfor på hvilke strategier unge muslimer har i møte med hat og stereotypier. I dette kapitlet spør vi hvilke former for muslimhets de opplever, og hva de gjør for å yte motstand mot hetsen og leve med den? Resultatene våre nyanserer og utfordrer bildet av det passive muslimske offeret som preger både den offentlige debatten og forskningen på muslimfiendtlighet.

• Ellefsen, Rune (2021). Why not talk about repression? Radical Activism and its Responses to Repression. PArtecipazione e COnflitto. ISSN 1972-7623. 14(1), p. 480–496. doi: 10.1285/i20356609v14i1p480. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  By exploring silence as a response to repression, this study contributes to the literature on the dynamic rela-tionship between protest and repression; it examines the ways in which certain radical activists responded with silence to the escalating repression they were experiencing. Analysis explains how and why they remained si-lent, and the consequences of that silence for individual activists and collective mobilization. Based on a case study of the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign in the UK, this article includes the reflections of activists who experienced repression first-hand. By analysing in-depth interviews and other qualitative data, the study identifies four different forms of silence among the activists facing repression: silence as a strategy, si-lence as a cultural trait, silence due to over-confidence and silence resulting from the normalization of repres-sion. The results show how cultural and strategic dynamics play out in protestors' experiences of and responses to repression. The study demonstrates the importance of the neglected research area of the response to re-pression for advancing our understanding of the conditions under which repression leads either to demobiliza-tion or to mobilization.

• Ellefsen, Rune (2021). The Unintended Consequences of Escalated Repression. Mobilization. ISSN 1086-671X. 26(1), p. 87–108. doi: 10.17813/1086-671X-26-1-87. Show summary

  This article examines the unpredictable consequences of escalated repression on the dynamics of contention. By examining sequences of interactions among contenders in the course of one conflict, analysis traces pathways through which the escalation of repression impacts activists and protest targets in ways that seemingly go against the intentions of repressive agents. Three types of outcomes of repression are identified: a worse situation for protest targets; triggered radicalization; and a “chilling effect” on lawful protest. This article contributes by demonstrating a temporally sensitive approach that traces how certain pathways combine to produce these unintended outcomes. The empirical case studied is the life cycle (1999–2014) of the British conflict between the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty animal rights campaign and the Huntingdon Life Sciences corporation, which also involved the government, criminal justice agencies, and private businesses.

• Ellefsen, Rune & Sandberg, Sveinung (2021). A repertoire of everyday resistance: young Muslims’ responses to anti-Muslim hostility. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. ISSN 1369-183X. 48(11), p. 2601–2619. doi: 10.1080/1369183X.2021.1894913. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Research has shown widespread discrimination and hostility toward Muslims in Western countries. There is less knowledge of how Muslims resist, oppose, or challenge such behaviour. Based on in-depth interviews with 90 young Muslims in Norway, this study explores responses to anti-Muslim hostility. We describe a repertoire of everyday resistance: talking back, entering dialogue, living the example, denying significance, and talking down. The first three forms occur in face-to-face encounters while the latter two are retrospect sense-making of negative experiences. We conceptualise these responses as everyday resistance because they entail ways of actively countering anti-Muslim hostility, as opposed to passively accepting or adapting to it. This repertoire of everyday resistance can make it easier to avoid victimisation, protect religious identities, and ease the daily lives of young Muslims. Increased attention to narrative resistance in studies of everyday resistance will provide a better understanding of the many ways in which marginalised groups cope, resist, and struggle with their stigma.

• Ellefsen, Rune & Joel, Busher (2020). The Dynamics of Restraint in the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty Campaign. Perspectives on Terrorism (PT). ISSN 2334-3745. 14(6), p. 165–179. Show summary

  This article examines the functioning and failure of restraint throughout the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign, from its start in 1999 to its end in 2014. SHAC provides an intriguing case for those interested in restraint within militant or radical social movements. The campaign comprised a range of lawful and unlawful activities. These often extended well beyond standard repertoires of nonviolent civil disobedience - surprising perhaps in a campaign that claimed to be rooted in a nonviolent tradition; but rarely resulted in interpersonal violence and never in the use of lethal force, even as the escalation of state-led repression and policing limited opportunities for peaceful protest. In this article we first identify three aspects of the campaign where a satisfactory explanation for the observable patterns of violence across the SHAC campaign appears to require an understanding of restraint: innovations away from more militant tactics at the outset and during the final stages of the campaign, and the maintenance of the outer limits of violence during the campaign peak. We then explain this restraint, and how it functions or fails. In doing so, we observe a difference between the processes of restraint described: while the innovations away from more militant tactics are to a large extent contingent on developments within the activists’ operating environment, the restraint processes associated with maintaining the outer limits of the action repertoire are more deeply inscribed within the basic logics of the campaign. We reflect on the implications of these findings for future research and analysis of restraint within radical movements, and on methodological challenges encountered during this analysis. The article is based on documentary evidence and qualitative data, including interviews and the observation of trials involving SHAC activists.

• Ellefsen, Rune (2020). Prevention of radicalization as an emergent field of plural policing in Norway: The accelerating role of militant Islamists. Nordic Journal of Studies in Policing (NJSP). ISSN 2703-7045. 8(1), p. 1–23. doi: 10.18261/ISSN.2703-7045-2021-01-03. Show summary

  This article provides a brief history of the policing of militant Islamism in Norway between 2009 and 2019. The numerous counter-responses to militant Islamism throughout this decade, it is argued, was a primary factor that accelerated the emergence of prevention of radicalization and violent extremism (PRVE) as a new field of policy and plural policing in Norway. The emergence of this field in Norway is set against similar fields internationally, and related to the evolution of the global Salafist-jihadist movement. Based on interviews with practitioners involved in PRVE and other types of qualitative data, analysis traces the evolution of this field of policing and separates it into five phases, which follows the escalation and de-escalation of conflict between the militant Islamists and those tasked to police them. The article also discusses critical aspects and consequences of this emergent field, particularly regarding the role of the police and intelligence in policing of radicalization.

• Ellefsen, Rune & Jan, Jämte (2020). Countering extremism(s): Differences in local prevention of left-wing, right-wing and Islamist extremism. Journal for Deradicalization. ISSN 2363-9849. 24(24), p. 191–231. Show summary

  Policies to prevent radicalization and violent extremism (PRVE) frequently target a number of social movements seen as threats to national security. Often, this includes militant Islamist, right-wing and left-wing extremist milieus. In this article, we ask what distinguishes the ways in which local practitioners perceive and respond to these three milieus. Based on in-depth interviews with public servants in Sweden, we show how the milieus are seen to represent different types of threats, hold core values that resonate differently with dominant values in mainstream society and require responses that challenge public servants in diverging ways. Building on our analysis, we introduce a multidimensional model that clarifies why practitioners relate differently to each milieu. By including the rarely examined left-wing milieu, we are able to showcase the complexity of local PRVE work. Our study sheds new light on the challenges experienced by practitioners who are tasked to implement PRVE policy and demonstrates the problems of approaching “violent extremism” as a uniform phenomenon.

• Jämte, Jan & Ellefsen, Rune (2020). The Consequences of Soft Repression. Mobilization. ISSN 1086-671X. 25(3), p. 383–404. doi: 10.17813/1086-671X-25-3-383. Show summary

  This article examines the consequences of soft repression on social movement activists. By drawing on activists’ perceptions, we develop a multi-layered analytical framework that captures the experienced effects of soft repression at the individual, organizational and movement levels. Our results show that soft repression – in particular, labeling and stigmatization – primarily affect the individual level by triggering self-policing and self-control among activists. By introducing a model that incorporates several radical social movement organizations, we also show how labeling and stigmatization affect different radical groups in different ways. These measures sometimes fail to demobilize the primary targets of the repressive actions, that is, the most militant and clandestine groups. Instead, the de-mobilizing effects seem most evident in organizations that mobilize openly and inclusively. Our analysis is based on in-depth interviews with thirty-one activists from the radical left-libertarian movement (RLLM) in Sweden, most of which have been active in organizations labeled as “violence-affirming extremists” by the Swedish government.

• Ellefsen, Rune (2018). Deepening the explanation of radical flank effects: Tracing contingent outcomes of destructive capacity. Qualitative Sociology. ISSN 0162-0436. 41(1), p. 111–133. doi: 10.1007/s11133-018-9373-3. Show summary

  Radical flank effect (RFE) research has too often ignored the conditions under which particular RFEs occur and failed to acknowledge that RFEs might change over time, producing different, yet interrelated, outcomes across societal arenas. In order to fill these gaps, this article argues for expanding the framework to be used in analysis of RFEs by incorporating insights from recent social movement theory, and thus adding temporal and arena dimensions. This enables a deeper explanation of the conditions under which specific RFEs occur—and change—in more complex empirical settings where several actors interact in distinct arenas over time. The analytical approach is employed in the case study of the international Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign and its engagement with corporate and state adversaries throughout a fifteen-year period in the UK. The analysis does two things: first, it identifies the pathways along which the overall campaign attained its destructive capacity, which was key to the SHAC campaign’s short-term successes, and secondly, it explicates the variables and factors in distinct arenas that explain why the initial positive outcome was reversed. Thus, the analysis reveals the contingency of RFEs by comparing their short and long-term outcomes, and it explains why and how the outcomes changed. Broadly, the aim is to produce a deeper explanation of REFs, while also suggesting ways to expand this strand of research by, for example, examining the radical flank dilemma that results from the contingent outcomes of RFEs.

• Ellefsen, Rune (2017). Taking Sides? Issues of Bias and Partisanship When Researching Socio-political Conflict. Critical Criminology. ISSN 1205-8629. 25(2), p. 231–244. doi: 10.1007/s10612-017-9355-x. Full text in Research Archive
• Ellefsen, Rune (2016). Relational dynamics of protest and protest policing: Strategic interaction and the coevolution of targeting strategies. Policing and Society: An International Journal of Research and Policy. ISSN 1043-9463. 28(7), p. 751–767. doi: 10.1080/10439463.2016.1262366. Show summary

  This article investigates the relational dynamics of lawful and unlawful protest in the wake of the British Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign, and the plural policing efforts by public and private actors it triggered. The aim is to explain the coevolution of the targeting strategies employed by campaigners and their adversaries, particularly criminal justice agencies and corporate actors. Delimited to the life span of SHAC (1999–2014), the analysis tracks four forms of strategic shifts on the part of protestors and their adversaries – a series of strategic adaptations, innovation, cooperation and compliance, throughout five distinct phases of the conflict. The findings reveal how key players refine their targeting strategies throughout an interactive process, in which strategies are developed in tandem in the course of the battle. The paper demonstrates how research on strategic interaction can benefit from expanding the focus to include manifestations of strategy during cycles of stakeholder interaction, to fill the gaps left by concentrating on strategic decision-making exclusively. As the findings demonstrate, the ways in which strategies actually unfold and develop frequently deviate from the decision-making, and often involves unforeseen impacts and outcomes.

• Ellefsen, Rune (2016). Judicial opportunities and the death of SHAC: Legal repression along a cycle of contention. Social Movement Studies. ISSN 1474-2837. 15(5), p. 441–456. doi: 10.1080/14742837.2016.1185360. Show summary

  Focusing on the British animal rights campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences, this article investigates how changing judicial opportunities effectively cause the demobilization of a social movement campaign, explaining the central role of law and criminal justice in movement repression. The study identifies four forms of legal repression arising in response to the UK organization Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty: elite-initiated protest control, targeted criminalization, leadership decapitation and extended incapacitation. The analysis demonstrates the need to widen repression research beyond the policing of protest events, to cover how social movement activists are controlled after arrest. It concludes by arguing for the inclusion of a stage-dimension in repression research to better grasp the crucial role of private elites in the initiation of repression. The study builds on qualitative data from Britain, obtained by participant observation, trial observation and interviews, covering both protestors and their adversaries.

• Ellefsen, Rune (2014). Skillelinjer og utvikling i dyrevernetikken. Filosofisk supplement. ISSN 0809-8220. 10(2), p. 28–34.

View all works in Cristin

• Ellefsen, Rune (2024). Hatkriminalitetens livssyklus: Mønstre, reaksjoner og konsekvenser.
• Ellefsen, Rune & Os, Kristina (2024). Reporting anti-LGBTQI hate crime: First-hand experiences and reasons for not reporting.
• Lingaas, Carola Diane; Ellefsen, Rune & Houge, Anette Bringedal (2024). 'A relatively spacious margin for tasteless statements': A qualitative analysis of Norwegian courts’ demarcation of punishable hate speech.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2023). Ruspolitikk og -behandling i endring: En prosessorientert forklaring på heroinklinikkenes oppkomst.
• Ellefsen, Rune & Jämte, Jan (2023). The cultural consequences of Black Lives Matter.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2023). Key dilemmas in the prevention of radicalization and violent extremism .
• Ellefsen, Rune (2023). Dilemmaer i forebyggingen av radikalisering og voldelig ekstremisme.
• Ellefsen, Rune & Os, Kristina (2023). Reporting anti-LGBTQI hate crime to police: First-hand experiences and reasons for not reporting .
• Ellefsen, Rune & Sandberg, Sveinung (2022). Everyday Prevention of Radicalization: The Impacts of Family, Peer, and Police Intervention.
• Ellefsen, Rune & Sandberg, Sveinung (2021). Interrupting radicalization: The impact of family and peer-based vs. police-based intervention.
• Ellefsen, Rune & Sandberg, Sveinung (2021). Black Lives Matter: The role of emotions for mobilization and demobilization. Show summary

  In the spring of 2020, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests shook the world. Spreading from the US, demonstrations diffused globally, especially to Europe, calling out all kinds of racism, particularly structural racism and that emanating from the police. Emotions ran high and were pivotal in igniting protests. The role of emotion in social movements has received renewed scholarly attention during the last two decades. It plays an important role at every stage of protest, but few studies have traced its part in individuals’ mobilization and demobilization over time. This study examines the role of emotion in trajectories of engagement and disengagement during the global wave of BLM protests. Based on retrospective in-depth interviews with 38 participants in BLM demonstrations in Norway, we identify the role of emotion before, during and after their participation. Our findings help explain how individual patterns of participation develop in the course of a wave of protest, and also provide insights into the consequences of the recent BLM protests in Europe.

• Ellefsen, Rune; Sjøen, Martin Meggele & Jämte, Jan (2021). Key dilemmas in the prevention of radicalization and violent extremism.
• Banafsheh, Azin & Ellefsen, Rune (2021). "Jævla terrorist!" Muslimhets og hverdagsmotstand.
• Ellefsen, Rune & Sandberg, Sveinung (2021). Black Lives Matter: The role of emotions for mobilization and demobilization.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2021). The PhD Process and the Post-PhD Academic Job Hunt: Personal Experiences and Opinions.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2021). BLM i Norge skapte ny bølge med aktivister. [Internet]. NRK.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2021). Forsker på tiltak mot radikalisering: Har blandede erfaringer med politiet. [Newspaper]. Dagsavisen. Show summary

  Ny studie om radikalisering: Advarer mot for tidlig involvering av politi

• Ellefsen, Rune (2021). The emergence of radicalization policing in Nordic countries. Nordic Criminology Blog. Show summary

  The policing of radicalization has emerged as a new field of policy and policing in the Nordic countries during the last decade. It involves a fundamental shift in the societal response to individuals associated with radicalization or extremism.

• Jämte, Jan & Ellefsen, Rune (2021). Violent extremism is not a uniform phenomenon .
• Ellefsen, Rune & Sandberg, Sveinung (2021). Interrupting radicalization: The impacts of family, peer and police intervention.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2021). The Dynamics of Restraint in the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty Campaign.
• Ellefsen, Rune & Jämte, Jan (2021). Violent extremism is not a uniform phenomenon: The key differences in prevention of left-wing, right-wing, and Islamist extremism.
• Ellefsen, Rune & Jämte, Jan (2021). Violent extremism is not a uniform phenomenon: The key differences in prevention of left-wing, right-wing, and Islamist extremism. Right Now!. Show summary

  Policies to prevent radicalization and violent extremism frequently target militant Islamists, right-wing and left-wing extremists. In a recent study we have examined what distinguishes the ways in which local practitioners perceive and respond to each of the milieus. Our results show that there is a clear discrepancy between the uniform way violent extremism is presented in policy, and how front line practitioners experience the different forms of extremism at the local level.

• Svenberg, Sebastian; Arnesen, Daniel; Kjellman, Kjell Erling; Mjøset, Lars; Ellefsen, Rune & Stykket, Anna (2020). Norway. In de Moor, Joost; Uba, Katrin; Wahlström, Mattis; Wennerhag, Magnus & De Vydt, Michiel (Ed.), Protest for a future II: Composition, mobilization and motives of the participants in Fridays For Future climate protests on 20-27 September, 2019, in 19 cities around the world. Södertörns högskola. p. 177–185. Show summary

  In September 2019, the third Global Climate Strike organized by the Fridays For Future (FFF) protest campaign mobilized 6000 protest events in 185 countries and brought 7.6 million participants out onto the streets. This report analyses survey data about participants from 19 cities around the world and compares it to data from an international survey conducted in 13 European cities in March 2019. Both surveys collected data following the well-established “Caught in the Act of Protest” survey methodology in order to generate representative samples. What makes FFF new and particularly interesting is the involvement of schoolchildren and students as initiators, organizers and participants in climate activism on a large scale. The September mobilizations differed from the March events in the explicit call for adults to join the movement. Although older age cohorts were more strongly represented in September, young people continued to make up a substantial portion of the protestors – almost one third of demonstrators were aged 19 or under. Additionally, there was a high proportion of female FFF protestors. In both surveys nearly 60% of participants identified as female – with the largest share among the youngest demonstrators. Overwhelming majorities of adult participants were well educated and had a university degree. Moreover, a large proportion of young people participating in the September strikes had parents who had studied at university level. Despite the young age of the participants, interpersonal mobilization was the predominant method of recruitment to the strikes, particularly among friends and schoolmates. However, the growth in the size and popularity of the movement also includes a growing share of people who participate alone. Around a quarter of adults fit this category, as well as an initially small but growing number of young people. When expressing their emotions concerning climate change and global warming, the majority of protesters felt worried, frustrated and angered, as well as anxious about the future, although they did not often express a feeling of hopelessness. Therefore, despite a general tendency of decreasing hopefulness that important environmental issues can be addressed through policies, FFF participants show that their action is driven by feelings, awareness of the issues and a willingness to engage in finding solutions. In answer to a series of questions concerning solutions to environmental problems, respondents were divided over whether modern science could be relied on to solve environmental problems. Agreement varied between cities and age-groups on the degree to which they thought stopping climate change could be accomplished through voluntary individual lifestyle changes. However, there was more unity in skepticism towards relying on companies and the market to solve these problems. In conclusion, surveys of the strikes in March and September indicate important elements of continuity, as well as a small degree of change. Female participants and people with higher education predominate, interpersonal mobilization - particularly among friends - remains a 5 central factor in recruiting support, and protesters are mostly driven by feelings of frustration, anger and anxiety. However, the age of protestors is becoming more diverse, protesters’ hopefulness seems to be in decline, and the “Greta effect” is becoming less influential. The report findings suggest that the movement is becoming more established although its emotional basis for mobilization may be changing.

• Ellefsen, Rune (2020). Differences in local prevention of left-wing, right-wing and Islamist extremism.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2020). Opponent på NKVTS-seminar: Mental health issues in prevention of violent extremism.
• Ellefsen, Rune; Jakobsen, Siw Ellen & Banafsheh, Azin (2020). How do young Muslims deal with hate speech and verbal assaults? [Internet]. ScienceNorway.no.
• Ellefsen, Rune; Banafsheh, Azin & Jakobsen, Siw Ellen (2020). Hvordan møter unge muslimer hets? [Internet]. Forskning.no. Show summary

  Hva gjør det med deg å jevnlig bli kalt «jævla terrorist» eller andre stygge ting? Flere av muslimene som er intervjuet i en ny undersøkelse har positive erfaringer med å møte den som hetser dem med vennlighet og dialog. Men denne strategien kan koste. Det er slitsomt å forsvare seg hele tiden.

• Banafsheh, Azin; Ellefsen, Rune & Sandberg, Sveinung (2020). Hvordan møter muslimer religiøs hets? Dagbladet. ISSN 0805-3766. Show summary

  Muslimfiendtlige holdninger og hets er utbredt i Norge, men hva vet vi om muslimers reaksjoner? Vår studie viser at muslimers måter å respondere på hets på kan beskytte deres egenverd og religiøse identitet. Det kan også begrense virkningen av hets.

• Ellefsen, Rune & Sandberg, Sveinung (2020). A repertoire of everyday resistance: How young Muslims' respond to anti-Muslim hostility.
• Ellefsen, Rune & Jan, Jämte (2020). Being labelled as “violent extremists”: The consequences of soft repression. Right Now!. Show summary

  What are the consequences of being labeled as a “violent extremist”? How does labeling affect individual activists, their organizations, and the social movement they are part of? In a recent study, we show that labeling – and the associated stigma – affects different radical groups in different ways and that it sometimes fails to demobilize the primary targets of the repressive actions, that is, the most militant groups. Rather, the effects are most evident amongst organizations that mobilize inclusively and openly, using primarily conventional protest tactics. From this we highlight the potential “backfire effects” of labelling, as the most militant groups might be further radicalized by this form of soft repression.

• Jakobsen, Siw Ellen & Ellefsen, Rune (2020). Hva skjer når man kaller aktivistgrupper for voldelige ekstremister? [Internet]. Forskning.no.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2020). Preventing radicalization and violent extremism in Norway: The emergence of a new field of policy and practice. Show summary

  The prevention of radicalization is an example of a "wicked problem": a problem which no single actor can handle alone, and which is almost impossible to solve. Throughout the last decade, Nordic governments have therefore imposed increased cooperation across state, private and civil society actors to strengthen the prevention of radicalization and violent extremism (PRVE). Collaborative PRVE efforts has involved the assignment of new responsibilities to schools, social and child care services, civil society organizations, religious societies, local communities and others - also involving the police and its secret service. PRVE has thus changed from primarily being a law enforcement issue, to become the shared responsibility of citizens, local communities and an array of state and private actors. A work logic have been established that centers around forestalling criminal extremist acts from ever happening. The implementation of these new responsibilities, collaborative practices and preemptive logics have been crucial in creating what is currently a loose nation-wide structure and apparatus for PRVE in Norway. This paper traces the emergence of PRVE as a new policy field in Norway, provides a description of its characteristics and associated practices, while also discussing the role of the police and security-orientation in multi-agency PRVE work.

• Ellefsen, Rune (2020). The unintended consequenses of escalated repression: Tracing sequences of interrelated effects.
• Ellefsen, Rune & Skogvang, Stig Gøran (2020). Ekstremisme. [Radio]. Radio Nova.
• Ellefsen, Rune & Busher, Joel (2020). The dynamics of restraint on violent escalation: the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty case.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2020). Hvordan unge muslimer opplever og reagerer på muslimhets.
• Ellefsen, Rune & Mohamed, Idil (2020). Kunnskapsoppsummering til Bufdir: "Å være unge muslim i Norge: hverdagstro, opplevelser av og reaksjoner på muslimhets". Show summary

  Kunnskapsoppsummering til Barne-, ungdoms- og familiedirektoratet i forbindelse med arbeidet med regjeringens handlingsplan mot diskriminering av og hat mot muslimer.

• Ellefsen, Rune & Jämte, Jan (2019). Understanding protest control in an era of “radicalisation” and “violent extremism”: A multi-aspect interactionist approach. Show summary

  Since the early 2000s, governments in many Western democracies have introduced policies and practices to prevent radicalization and violent extremism (PRVE). This has led to the formation of a new policy arena in which an increased number of actors are tasked with responsibilities to prevent radicalisation and extremism, using a broad variety of repertoires. The wide set of agents and methods employed, challenges the established knowledge and analytical tools within research on repression of social movements. With this paper, we suggest a way to conceptualize this development, to categorize the actors involved and analyze their dynamic interaction. Drawing on the interactionist perspective, we show how the interplay between actors in the PRVE arena can be understood and analyzed through a focus on three main aspects: the causes, contents and consequences of protest control. To demonstrate the different aspects of our approach, and to highlight underexplored issues in repression research, we use empirical examples from our own studies of measures to prevent and counter “extremist” milieus in the Nordic countries.

• Ellefsen, Rune & Jämte, Jan (2019). Being labeled as “violent extremists”: The effects of soft repression on individual, organizational and movement levels .
• Ellefsen, Rune (2019). Managing militant Islamism in Norway (2009-2019): A process-oriented perspective. Show summary

  This paper analyses how the management of militant Islamism changed in Norway between 2009 and 2019. These changes are examined in relation to developments in the militant Islamist milieu and the global Salafist-jihadist movement it was part of, together with key events at the national and international levels. The period is analyzed as an “episode of contention” that has five distinct phases, which followed the escalation and de-escalation of conflict between the militant Islamists and those tasked to manage them. Analysis also identifies key events that led the way to the establishment of a national structure and apparatus for monitoring and managing radicalization and violent extremism. The analysis draws on several qualitative data sources.

• Ellefsen, Rune & Jämte, Jan (2019). Being labeled as “violent extremists”: The effects of soft repression on individual, organizational and movement levels. Show summary

  This paper examines the effects of soft repression on social movement activists. By drawing on activists’ perceptions, we develop a multi-layered analytical framework that captures the experienced effects of soft repression at the individual, organizational and movement levels. Our results show that soft repression–in particular, labeling and stigmatization –primarily affect the individual level by triggering self-policing and self-control among activists. By introducing a model that incorporates several radical social movement organizations, we also show how labeling and stigmatization affect different radical groups indifferent ways, and sometimes fail to demobilize the primary targets of the repressive actions, that is, the most militant and clandestine groups. Instead, the de-mobilizing effects seem most evident in organizations that mobilize openly and inclusively. Our analysis is based on in-depth interviews with thirty-one activists from the radical left-libertarian movement (RLLM) in Sweden, most of which have been active in organizations labeled as “violence-affirming extremists” by the Swedish government.

• Ellefsen, Rune (2019). Managing militant Islamism: A retrospective process-oriented perspective.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2019). Managing militant islamism in Norway: A process-oriented perspective.
• Ellefsen, Rune; Gule, Lars & Høgestøl, Sofie A.E. (2019). Fremmedkrigere og terror.
• Jämte, Jan & Ellefsen, Rune (2019). Experiencing soft repression: Effects of applying the violent extremist label on radical-left activist groups.
• Ellefsen, Rune & Jämte, Jan (2019). Researching the hybridization of repression: Protest control in an era of Radicalization and “Violent extremism”.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2018). Facing repression with silence: How cultural dynamics impact protestors’ perceptions of – and responses – to repression.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2018). The relational dynamics and consequences of radical flank effects.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2018). Facing repression with silence: How a movement’s cultural dynamics affect responses – and resilience – to repression.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2018). Countering violent extremism in the Nordic countries: Learning from experiences in Norwegian and Swedish municipalities.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2018). The protest-repression nexus: How movement-internal cultural dynamics affect responses to repression .
• Ellefsen, Rune (2018). Unintended consequences of escalating counter-extremism policing: The development of a multi-levelled response to "animal rights extremism" in Britain (1999-2014).
• Ellefsen, Rune & Ystehede, Per Jørgen (2018). Fortsatt aktuell etter 50 år. [Internet]. Institutt for kriminologi og rettssosiologi sin nettside.
• Ellefsen, Rune & Ystehede, Per Jørgen (2018). Strenge tiltak mot radikale kan gjøre vondt verre. [Internet]. www.forskning.no.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2018). The unintended consequences of escalated protest policing: Tracing trajectories of interrelated effects.
• Ellefsen, Rune; Ystehede, Per Jørgen & Kanestrøm, Jorunn (2018). Kontrollen med ulovlige protestaksjoner tar stadig nye former. [Internet]. Det juridiske fakultetet. Show summary

  Ulovlige protestaksjoner kan utløse kontrolltiltak som begrenser mulighetene for å aksjonere lovlig, fordi kreative kontrolltiltak fra myndighetene har uforutsette konsekvenser, viser ny forskning.

• Ellefsen, Rune (2018). Relational dynamics of protest and protest policing. European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control, News Letter. p. 4–8. Show summary

  All states seek to control protest and dissent in their population, but the ways in which control is exercised vary greatly across time and place (Waddington 1998: 117). Protest movements also push the limits of what is lawful and acceptable by employing innovative tactics, which sometimes take police and protest targets by surprise. When innovative protestors challenge the law – or operate on its very edge – while also resisting dialogue with the police, they are likely to be perceived as ‘troublesome’. Responses to ‘troublesome’ protestors differ, and involve dynamics fundamentally different from those applied against those who are perceived as ‘peaceful’. The policing of ‘troublesome’ protest frequently involves more than the public order police. It can include special units tasked to counter ‘domestic extremism’1 and even terrorism, it can involve the intelligence services, the prosecution services, the courts, the probation service, and even private corporate actors (see e.g., Joyce 2016). It is this relationship, between these agents of plural policing and ‘troublesome’ (transgressive) campaigners, that my dissertation of 2018 “Performing and policing transgressive protest: A relational approach to the SHAC-HLS conflict in Britain (1999–2014)” examines. The relationship is explored empirically by studying the conflict between Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) and Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) in Britain and beyond, together with the business partners of HLS, the British government and criminal justice agencies. The analysis follows the entire life cycle of the conflict – from the birth of SHAC in 1999 to its final dissolution in 2014.

• Ellefsen, Rune & Sollund, Ragnhild (2017). Samtale om egen forskning: Mennesker og andre dyr – Makt, protest, endring. Show summary

  I forbindelse med utstillingen Pyramide inviterer Boa til en samtale mellom Rune Ellefsen og Ragnhild Sollund, begge forskere innenfor temaer som berører dyrs stilling i samfunnet – handel med truede dyrearter, grønn kriminologi, dyrevelferdsloven og protestbevegelser.

• Ellefsen, Rune (2017). Plural policing of "domestic extremism".
• Ellefsen, Rune (2017). Unintended consequences of policing ‘domestic extremism’: The SHAC-HLS conflict in Britain (1999-2014).
• Ellefsen, Rune (2017). Sosiale bevegelser og konflikter om miljøkriminalitet.
• Olerud, Maria Birkeland & Ellefsen, Rune (2016). Latinamerikanske land dreper flest aktivister. [Journal]. Latin-Amerika #2, Årgang 21, Oktober 2016. Show summary

  På statistikktoppen troner Brasil med 50 drepte aktivister, Filippinene med 33 drepte, og Colombia og Peru med henholdsvis 26 og 12 drepte aktivister. Det melder organisasjonen Global Witness. Demonstranter som protesterer mot gruveutbygging, eksportjordbruk, vannkraft og hogst er mest utsatt, skriver organisasjonen i rapporten On dangerous ground.

• Ellefsen, Rune (2016). Social movements and conflicts over species justice.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2016). Relational dynamics of protest and repression: The tactical interplay between SHAC and its adversaries.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2016). Dynamics of mobilization and repression: The rise and fall of the global SHAC campaign.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2016). The Radical Flank Dilemma: Contradictory Effects of the Underground's Participation in the International SHAC Campaign.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2015). Social movements and conflicts over species (in)justice.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2015). Social movements in green criminology: Studying dynamics of protest and repression in a conflict over animal experiments.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2015). Sosiale bevegelser og konflikter om ”miljøkriminalitet”.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2015). A Cycle of Protest and Repression: The Rise and Fall of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2014). Introduksjon og kommentar til dokumentarfilmen Ghosts in Our Machine.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2014). Skillelinjer og utvikling i dyrevernetikken (republisering). Salongen : Nettstedet for filosofi og idéhistorie.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2014). Understanding Political Repression of a Social Movement: A Theoretical Explication with Empirical Underpinnings.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2014). Mat og dyrevern: Myter og realiteter.
• Ellefsen, Rune & Vinding, Joh (2014). Med lov til at pine. [Newspaper]. Animas medlemsblad.
• Ellefsen, Rune (2018). Performing and policing transgressive protest: A relational approach to the SHAC-HLS conflict in Britain (1999–2014). University of Oslo, Faculty of Law. ISSN 1890-2375. Show summary

  This dissertation explores the reciprocal relationship between transgressive protest and the plural policing of such protest. It explicates how and why practices of protest and policing are employed and developed over time, through sequences of interactions between protestors and agents of policing. This is done by a case study of the conflict between Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) and their main opponent, the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty SHAC) campaign in Britain (1999-2014), which also involved the government and criminal justice agencies. SHAC’s innovative combination of lawful and unlawful protest tactics had a devastating effect on HLS. The level of SHAC’s impact is reflected in the wave of government and policing measures introduced to tackle the campaign. The relations and interactions between the key players in the conflict (protestors, private business actors and various state agencies) are analyzed along different dimensions. The dissertation thus answers its overarching problematic: how and why do the key players relate, respond and adapt to each other’s actions and tactics throughout the conflict – and with what consequences?

View all works in Cristin