Project Description
In a context of increasingly polarized societies, with extremist ideologies spreading and presenting high threats to social cohesion in Europe, the EU and its Member States are recognizing the need to develop effective prevention policies and intervention scenarios supporting social inclusion and cohesive societies. It is especially relevant to focus on psychological and social mechanisms of alienation, radicalization and deradicalization of young people in European urban contexts. OPEN MINDS will aim to identify social-economic problems, design and pilot solutions and, refine and validate these solutions in close collaboration to stakeholders and civil society. The project will explore the socio-economic drivers of radical religious and political ideologies prone to incite or lead to violence. It will also analyze exit strategies and disengagement from radical contexts and present complementary knowledge on non-radicalizing identity. Through the project, an extensive fieldwork will be conducted and the research findings will be translated into two intervention scenarios (gaming and training) which will directly enable young people to take an active role in a more inclusive Europe. The consortium will draw on the existing state-of-the-art research across relevant disciplines (from conflict and terrorism studies, sociology, psychology, geography, linguistics, moral philosophy, computer science and econometrics) to pave a way for exploring the understudied links between socio-economics, radicalization and deradicalization and related socio-ecological resilience.
Impact
Through the activities of OPEN MINDS project and by exploiting its results and outcomes, young people living in urban and peri-urban areas and being at risk of radicalization / polarization will be able to develop socio-ecological resilience mechanisms that will allow them to effectively and easily disengage from radicalized behaviors. In addition, the project aims to increase the capacity of local institutions, organizations and civil society actors on how to calibrate their approaches and resources to increase socio-ecological resilience and protect communities and individuals that are vulnerable to radicalization and violent extremism.
Our Role
Innovation Hive is actively participating in all educational and research aspects of the project well as is responsible for the technical developments of the OPEN MINDS project.
Project Partners
Coordinator
SOSU OSTJYLLAND
Partners
INNOVATION HIVE
PROJECTS FOR EUROPE PFE
“Horizont ProConsult” EOOD
FRAMEWORK associazione culturale
Mednarodni institut za implementacijo trajnostnega razvoja
STANDO LTD
Project’s Social

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.