By Svetla Koynova (Violence Prevention Network)

Extremism prevention and disengagement work have always been dynamic. Unlike in many other policy areas, the most pressing challenges here do not change over decades, but sometimes within a matter of months. And when global events and crises seem to throw everything into disarray, new challenges can become a threat to public safety within a matter of weeks.

Extremist actors constantly incorporate these events into their interpretations of the world when they want to persuade others. This shifts ideologies and creates new narrative connections. Through constantly new myths, extremists try to reflect the concerns and obsessions of those who receive and spread these myths. Technological developments are also changing how people encounter and disseminate these extremist ideas.

Those who first notice these shifts are rarely academics or political decision-makers. They are practitioners: counsellors, social workers, leaders of exit programmes. In their conversations, in the crises they respond to, new trends become visible, often years before they are widely recognised. If you want to know where extremist ideologies are heading, you have to look at the practice. It is the lens through which society can see the front line.

The front line is becoming increasingly complex

Polarisation is increasing and creating deeper rifts in society and families. The danger posed by so-called lone actors, who act without any discernible group affiliation, makes prevention increasingly difficult. Young people are becoming radicalised earlier, often before their adult identities are fully formed. And they are doing so in spaces that are increasingly invisible: in closed online forums, algorithmically controlled feeds, on gaming platforms.

This is exacerbated by the fact that many children and young people have missed out on key stages of socialisation during the pandemic or have experienced them in an unfamiliar order. They do not have a sufficiently strong sense of belonging and pay for this with a lack of self-confidence and a tendency towards isolation.

These processes are not only hidden, they are also hybrid. The ideologies that young people latch onto are eclectic. They mix conspiracy narratives, ethno-nationalism, misogyny and even pseudo-spiritual promises of resurrection. This makes the “ image of the enemy “ more diffuse than ever.

What does this mean for prevention?

It means that superficial awareness campaigns are not enough. We must intervene in the spiral of isolation and loneliness before it leads to violence. In secondary and tertiary prevention, in the phase where risks are real and people find themselves on the margins of society, we must offer alternatives. And that alternative is human connection. The relationship with a counsellor who listens without prejudice. The presence of a social worker who recognises the person behind the ideology.

But knowing that human connection is crucial is not enough. We need to understand how it can be built, where it is most urgently needed, and why some interventions work, and others do not. This is precisely the role of applied research.

Research as a compass

Applied, practical research provides the compass that prevention needs – in three directions:

1. At the societal level, it shows us the larger structures that fuel radicalisation: discrimination, economic exclusion, digital subcultures, cultural alienation. Without this bird’s-eye view, we are fighting symptoms, not causes.
2. At the individual level, it helps us understand why one young person ignores extremist content while another watches longer and delves deeper. Knowledge of these micro-dynamics enables practitioners to make counselling more empathetic and thus more targeted and effective.
3. In a feedback loop, research ensures that insights flow in both directions: practice informs research, research strengthens practice. In this way, we prevent prevention work from becoming rigid. It remains adaptable to ever-changing ideologies.

More practical, not detached

For some, research sounds abstract, like an ivory tower, not like the reality on the ground. But in the field of extremism prevention, research is not a luxury. It makes practice sharper, more effective, more human. It transforms compassion into strategy and strategy into measurable impact.

Within Violence Prevention Network, this positive feedback is repeatedly used to support internal quality assurance, evaluation and learning. Insights into major social shifts play a fundamental role in the encounter between counsellor and client. Thanks to social diagnostics, the insights gained are fed back to the organisational level, where knowledge can circulate. This structure reflects exactly what prevention itself must achieve: zooming out to recognise patterns; zooming in to see the individual; and feeding the insights gained back into practice.

Since 2017, Violence Prevention Network has had its own research team that closely links practice and research. Our goal is not only to observe the dynamics of the field, but also to actively shape it: to provide scientific support for programmes, develop new approaches and quickly incorporate current research findings into our work with clients.

In doing so, we rely on three pillars:

1. Ensuring quality
   We evaluate internal processes, further develop diagnostics and case management, and ensure that our practice always remains up to date with the latest scientific findings.
2. Creating knowledge
   As a partner in research projects, we contribute our practical experience to foster collaborations with universities and institutes, while at the same time feeding the most pressing questions from our work with those affected directly back into research.
3. Strengthening dialogue
   We create spaces for exchange between practice, research and administration: workshops, training courses, joint reflection. This gives rise to understanding, new ideas and sustainable networks.

In an age of hybrid ideologies and invisible radicalisation, research is not optional. It is the torch in the dark corridor. It shows us not only where people have strayed, but also the paths they can take to find their way back. In this way, research and prevention go hand in hand.

Author:

Svetla Koynova co-heads the Research Department at Violence Prevention Network alongside Maximilian Campos Ruf, where she is responsible for the strategic direction of research initiatives. She studied political science, specialising in the sociology of religion and intercultural and transcultural management (University of Freiburg and Sciences Po Aix), and has extensive experience in the fields of monitoring, evaluation and learning processes, as well as in research into group-focused hostility, conspiracy beliefs and radicalisation. In her role at Violence Prevention Network, she makes a significant contribution to the further development and scientific underpinning of practical working processes, particularly in secondary and tertiary extremism prevention.