Opp.Attune

Attuning Oppositional Extremism through Social Dialogue. Recognize, Attune, Limit*

OppAttune tracks the evolution of what might tentatively be called “extremist oppositional narratives”, policies and actions – and develops an innovative model of attunement. It will test a range of interventions at national and transnational levels which limit the spread of destructive and malignant political practices – while also facilitating constructive oppositional discourse as well as new forms of enhanced social dialogue. OppAttune thus revitalises trust in key democratic institutions. Its actions include an online I-Attune self-test designed to build democratic capacity across diverse publics. OppAttune will conduct an OppAttune Summer Academy for students and researchers (2025) and an OppAttune Winter Academy for practitioners and policymakers (2026). OppAttune provides micro, meso and macro level evidence-based recommendations and strategies designed to attune the potential of destructive oppositional narratives to disrupt democratic social development. It delivers this through a multidisciplinary consortium of 17 countries across the EU and its periphery.

As German OppAttune partner, Cultures Interactive (NGO) will advance its work on the ‘Narrative Group Work’ approach and Youth Cultural methods in view of building skills of social dialogue and democratic personality, which will increasingly be piloted in rural and small-town hot spots and intercultural communities. In addition, Cultures Interactive will further develop an approach to 'Narrative Attunement First Responder Skills' to be used in what can be called emergency situations in democratic societies – currently referred to in the project as “scenarios of everyday extremism”.

Democracies and the European vision are under threat by anti-democratic, authoritarian and oligarchic tendencies and by a lack of constructive political and social dialogue. Existential insecurities arising from economic and refugee-related crises have been exacerbated by Covid-19 leading to re-bordering e.g., xenophobic nationalism, re-shoring e.g., the localisation of production, and risks of trade wars.

Oppositional worldviews, dissenting narratives and conflict within public debate are all vital to a functioning, lively democracy. However, polarisation through an “extremist”, i.e. destructive oppositional us-versus-them logic, boosted by resentment, hate speech and a rhetoric of Group-Focused Enmity (according to the German GMF scale) are at the core of what is commonly referred to as “extremist narratives”. Disruptive actors abuse the realm of democratic opposition by malevolently employing disinformation, ‘hot cognitions’, emotions of othering, conspiracy theories and a generalized societal mistrust in order to create new forms of direct action – which are (mis)understood by many as ‘direct democracy’. This direct action cultivates unlikely coalitions, creates tempting alternative worlds and post-truth spaces – on-line as well as off-line – which spread destructive oppositional narratives into the societal mainstream. Hereby deep rooted sociological and historical pathways are appealed to which go back to authoritarian times of European history. OppAttune will help to recognize, attune and thus limit such destructive/ “extremist” oppositional narratives and behaviours – in order to foreground EU transnational freedoms, social dialogue and multilateralism.

Cultures Interactive is delighted to be a partner in the OppAttune project, which focuses on the need to support and facilitate pathways of constructive oppositional discourse and enhanced social dialogue. Such activities will also prevent us from over-emphasising the prevalence of counter-rhetoric in debates and civic education, which often inadvertently contributes to polarisation - as well as to the 'othering' of what is commonly referred to by the questionable term “extremism” but may be more entrenched in ourselves, as supposedly non-extremist individuals than we realize.

Therefore, a working concept of 'everyday extremism' or perhaps even 'everyman/woman extremism' is a key element within the project's discourse. OppAttune will be all the more successful in effectively preventing what has been so poignantly termed the “securitisation” of education, counselling and community work under the auspices of counter terrorism since 9/11.

Project Partners

  • The Open University, United Kingdom
  • Glasgow Caledonian University, United Kingdom
  • Panteion University, Greece
  • The American University of Paris, France
  • Malmo Universitet, Sweden
  • Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Austria
  • Universita Ta Malta
  • Ozyegin Universitesi, Turkey
  • Istanbul Bilgi Universitesi, Turky
  • University Of Cyprus
  • Institut Jozef Stefan, Slovenia
  • Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal
  • Fondacija Centar Za Medjunarodne I Bezbednosne Poslove, Serbia
  • Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, Kosovo
  • Hammurabi Human Rights Organization, Iraq
  • Udruzenje Proni Centar Za Omladinski Razvoj, Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • cultures interactive e.V., Germany

Duration

April 2023 until March 2026

Funding

Horizon Europe / RIA – Research and Innovative Methods

* The title is in this text edited by Cultures Interactive. The official title, which is currently in use, at the beginning of the project states: “OppAttune – Countering Oppositional Political Extremism through Attuned Dialogue: Track, Attune, Limit.”