Brunel University London is one of the 18 institutions across Europe and the Middle East set to work on a 3 year project entitled “De-Radicalisation in Europe and Beyond: Detect, Resolve, Re-integrate (D.Rad)", led by Glasgow Caledonian University. The project will kick off in December 2020 and is awarded €3m by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 on the call ‘Addressing radicalisation through social inclusion”. The project includes 17 countries, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Finland, Slovenia, Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Turkey, Georgia and Austria, encompassing field research in 16 countries with an aim to detect the factors that engender radicalization and identify possible ways of re-integration.
Bridging academic disciplines ranging from political science and cultural studies to social psychology and artificial intelligence, D.Rad grounds radicalisation in perceptions of injustice which lead to grievance, alienation and polarisation. Based on a rigorous, cross-national survey of the drivers (injustice, grievance, alienation, polarisation) that can generate violent extremism, the project uses innovative machine learning, discourse analysis, digital methods and social psychology approaches to test projects, tools and dissemination strategies, emphasising the experiences of young people and socially excluded communities, and offering policy and practical recommendations. The project meets challenges posed for radicalisation research by developing online and offline interventions to promote agency, resolution and resilience. From Brunel University London, Dr Ozge Ozduzen and Dr Nelli Ferenczi are both principal investigators for the project and they will work on the digital drivers of radicalisation and the social psychology of de-radicalisation in the UK.
Dr Ozge Ozduzen from sociology and communications is co-leading a work package investigating traditional and new media's roles in radicalisation and their potentials for deradicalisation. Ozge co-leads the work package entitled "mainstreaming, media literacy and patterns of mass media communication" along with the Zavod Apis Institute in Slovenia, which is a private non-profit institute aimed at the production, education, innovation and collaboration tied to social engagement, memory preservation, and human rights. The work package will assess the everyday level and the “mainstreaming” of radical ideologies trough media and popular culture, drawing on cultural studies, digital methods and literary methodologies. The work package will capture the digital traces and patterns of radicalised online interactions of individuals on different social networking sites whilst generating media literacy tools for the purposes of deradicalisation across partner countries. The methods will establish networked frameworks of othering and mythmaking; of grievance; and of alternative sources of legitimation and authority for pursuing justice.
Dr Nelli Ferenczi from psychology is co-leading the social psychology work package that aims to increase social cohesion and minimise the impact of the narratives that gives rise to injustice, grievance, alienation and polarisation. Nelli is co-leading a work package on “The social psychology of de-radicalisation” with partners at The Institute for East-European Studies, one of the oldest institutes of the Freie Universität Berlin. The overarching aim of the work package is to unpack the interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup factors that form the mutually reinforcing cycle of rejection, radical group identification, and support for radicalised belief systems and behaviours. This study will help us understand how individuals experience injustice, grievance, alienation and polarising influences within certain groups contexts, examining layers of influence between individuals, within groups, and between groups. This will involve investigating marginalisation, group identification, and maintenance of identity, using longitudinal, correlational, and experimental designs, which includes investigating interventions as preventative measures against radicalisation.