RAN LOCAL - Emotional Governance: deconstructing local P/CVE strategies in the face of ‘salad bar’ extremism and understanding needs and grievances, 30-31 May 2024

In this RAN LOCAL meeting, local authorities and practitioners gathered to discuss the complex challenges they face in engaging with their communities effectively to foster resilience against violent extremism and uphold shared values of peace, tolerance and solidarity. The premise of the meeting was that traditional local approaches to preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) primarily focus on security measures, overlooking the crucial role of emotions within institutions and among practitioners in fostering trust, understanding and resilience within the communities they serve. 

Using the definition of “emotional intelligence” as the ability to perceive, understand and regulate public emotions, participants discussed to what extent they need to practice “emotional governance” and incorporate it into their respective local P/CVE strategies. These are the key outcomes of their discussion:

• Emotional governance is a new concept for local P/CVE practitioners and authorities, requiring time and effort to develop a working definition suitable for local P/CVE contexts. 
• Using the working definition of emotional governance, participants recognised that local authorities are already in a position to utilise it. Through their policies, strategies and interventions, they inherently attempt to manage the emotions of their citizens. 
• The management of emotions by local authorities is often aligned with the perceived shared image, mission or culture of the respective city. While not necessarily wrong, this approach may be incomplete and fail to reach those who feel marginalised, a growing group of citizens. 
• Emotions can be effectively used as a tool for local P/CVE, with the caveat that authorities must stay closely connected to the actual needs and emotions of individual citizens. This involves recognising that individuals identify with multiple “communities”, not just those aligned with the perceived image, mission, culture or shared values. 
• Implementing emotional governance requires authenticity, which entails accountability and transparency about self-perceived authenticity (i.e. “good governance”) and an institutional acceptance of making mistakes. Acknowledging dilemmas fosters understanding among citizens. The creed “Re-attempt, reframe, and try again. TikTok, don’t tick box” emerged as a guiding principle for local authorities dealing with P/CVE.