Coyer Speaks at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s Conference on Radicalization and De-radicalization

The German Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) organized a conference on radicalization and de-radicalization on October 2, entitled "Mind the gap: Radicalization and De-Radicalization in Theory and Practice". The conference aimed to bring together academics and practitioners working on different aspects of the problem. Participants and speakers discussed differences and similarities between European states in tackling radicalization and de-radicalization, reasons and motives that drive radicalization and the differences between right-wing, left-wing and religious radicalization.

Kate Coyer, who is director of CMDS’ Civil Society and Technology Project, leads the Center's work on the Virtual Center of Excellence for Research in Violent Online Political Extremism (VOX-Pol), a five-year project supported by the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme Network lead by Dublin City University. At the conference, she spoke about the current trends, challenges and concerns with countering violent extremism initiatives, including the limits of content removal as a strategy and the lack of evidence to the effectiveness of counter narratives. She also drew attention to the importance of supporting local programs and peer to peer efforts, and the need to work creatively across sectors.

The video recordings of the conference are available here.