About Article

“Communication” is widely employed in social movement and terrorism studies in the description of symbolic structures related to protest mobilisation and clandestine political violence. This article argues, however, that common understandings of communication over-emphasise its instrumental aspects and therefore cannot fully consider the term’s conceptual opportunities. In response, this article conceptualises an analytical approach to clandestine political violence within a social movement framework, according to a Luhmannian understanding of communication as the mode of social differentiation. The theoretical argument is illustrated by empirical examples from the era of “armed struggle” in Western Europe.