Launch Event

in Barcelona

The project

CONNEKT (Contexts of Violent Extremism in the MENA and Balkan Societies) is a EU-funded research project that investigates what can drive youths aged between 12 and 30 from 8 countries – Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Morocco, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Bulgaria – into setting out on a process of radicalisation towards violent extremism.

The focus

The project focuses on the relevance of socioeconomic and socio-political inequalities in radicalisation processes. On 3 levels (transnational/state, community, individual), 7 factors will be analysed: religion, digitalisation, economic deprivation, territorial inequalities, transnational dynamics, socio-political demands, and educational, cultural and leisure opportunities.

The research

It will be articulated through interviews, surveys, focus groups, seminars and round tables in each of the study countries and at the transnational level. It will also have a participatory work within the framework of the Skopje Youth Forum and the Tarragona Women’s Forum.

The goal

CONNEKT aims to recommend prevention strategies from the social field designed based on the voices of young people and, in particular, aimed at local authorities and social actors. They will be addressed to the societies of the countries being studied and the EU’s countries.

The team

An interdisciplinary team, led from Barcelona by the European Institute of the Mediterranean, comprising 14 partners from 12 countries, including universities, think tanks, civil society actors and local authorities.

Video-interviews of partners explaining the project