CONNEKT – CONtexts of extremism iN mEna and balKan socieTies

Duration: 2019-2023

Budget: €2,933,802.50. Executed by the IEMed:  €438,925.

CONNEKT explores the drivers of radicalisation and violent extremism among young people aged from 12 to 30 in eight countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Egypt, Jordan, Kosovo, Morocco, North Macedonia, and Tunisia. The project will map and establish interrelationships and specific significance of seven potential drivers within three different levels of analysis.

The research relies on qualitative, quantitative and empirical fieldwork to build a consistent and comprehensive picture of the phenomenon. Gender, youth and social perceptions and expectations are cross-cutting lines of analysis throughout the research and intervention stages.

The research will be conducted through interviews, surveys, focus groups, seminars and roundtables in each of the countries under study and at a transnational level. It will also have a participatory dimension with the Skopje Youth Forum and the Tarragona Women’s Forum. 

These activities, designed with an innovative and dynamic methodology, seek to engage youths in the creation of prevention measures and enhance the role of women, particularly in preventing violent extremism.

The engagement of civil society actors, youngsters and particularly women in the second stage of the research will allow the project to focus on the grassroots creation of strategies and initiatives to prevent radicalisation and violent extremism at a community level of interest to local authorities. Finally, the results will be used to formulate recommendations on prevention strategies for the European Union.

Objectives:

  • Mapping past and current country strategies and approaches towards radicalisation and VE in Europe, MENA and Balkans.
  • Drawing a comprehensive picture of radicalisation drivers among youth in Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Bulgaria.
  • Establishing a cartography of conducive collective contexts of radicalisation and VE in MENA and Balkans involving diverse stakeholders
  • Identifying measures, strategies and policies at state, community, local and society level to prevent radicalisation and VE in target countries
  • Implementing pilot experiences of context intervention in target countries in liaison with local authorities and civil society actors
  • Transferring results and recommendations to multi-level policy-makers in target countries and to the EU.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 870772.

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