Call for participants: RAN LOCAL - Emotional governance: deconstructing local P/CVE strategies in the face of ‘salad bar extremism’ and understanding and grievances

30 & 31 May - lunch-to-lunch CET – location: TBD  

Background and aim of the meeting  

Violent extremism is an inherently emotional topic. Due to its impact, all elements of society are on high alert, and governments are under extreme pressure to take proper measures. As humans, we long for control: to control the circumstances that lead to violent extremism; to control the underlying fear that is based on uncertainty, dread, and vulnerability.

For the upcoming meeting of the RAN LOCAL Working Group, we are recognising this element of a desire for control in local P/CVE strategies due to the fact that many are (still) primarily focused on ideology and group-thinking. Our challenge in the upcoming meeting will be to deconstruct the elements that have proven to be both insufficient in addressing extremist challenges and harmful for the targeted communities and individuals.

However, since the pandemic there has been a growing understanding that local authorities need an emotionally intelligent approach; as they are dealing with public distrust, they need practical skills and tools to reinvent governing by managing and understanding public emotions. Thus, they will be able to prevent and/or counter excesses of those emotions, such as extremist behaviour, which is essentially an expression (by an individual or group) of public emotion. Local coordinators and advisers in the field of P/CVE are therefore considering objective factors that underline the intentions, actions, emotions and perspectives of individuals, and consequently, individuals forming groups, movements or organisations.

The RAN LOCAL Working Group has emphasised the importance of adaptive local P/CVE strategies. Our findings underscore the necessity of continuing to adapt and organise effective local strategies that incorporate an element of so-called emotional governance, i.e. navigating and managing public emotions in order to regulate them more effectively. In our upcoming meeting, we will delve into the aforementioned underlying fundamental principles of current local P/CVE strategies, moving away from traditional approaches and focusing on (re)building emotional rapport between citizens and local government.

Practitioners we are looking for: local P/CVE coordinators/advisers and first-line practitioners.

To find the best suited participants, we kindly ask that you briefly answer the questions in this survey.  

Deadline

If you are interested in participating in this meeting, please fill out the survey by 30 April 2024. We will invite participants based on the information provided therein. Please keep in mind that we only have a limited number of places available for this meeting to foster exchanges, so participation cannot be guaranteed.  

Please note, the meeting will be held in English (without interpretation).  

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact v [dot] vaseurradaradvies [dot] nl (Vincent VASEUR) or m [dot] shahhoudradaradvies [dot] nl (Malaz SHAHHOUD).