Journal for Deradicalization (Sep 2018)
The political challenges of community-level PVE practices: The Danish case of Copenhagen vs. Aarhus on dialoguing with extremist milieus
Abstract
In 2015 and 2016 two interesting cases occurred in Denmark regarding practices related to Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE): a community-level dialogue was discontinued with an extremist milieu in Copenhagen due to the specific worldview but allowed to continue in a similar situation in Aarhus. What were the reasons for this divergence? When examining the community-level political argumentation, an exclusion paradigm played a crucial role, but other factors, such as confusion about the core concepts and goals of PVE, the political dynamics at play, and the prevailing decision-making structures also influenced the differential outcomes despite the similarity of the situations. Since community-level PVE practices constitute a rapidly growing field, there is a lesson to be learned from the Danish cases: building coherent and continuous PVE practices is not only a matter for professional practitioners, but also calls for a solid understanding of its goals at the political level.
