Kulturräume 2010

When adolescents turn to far-right or other inhuman ideologies, their social environment plays an important role alongside their personal surroundings: Youth at risk of becoming involved in far-right extremism grow up in neighborhoods, communities, or regions where there are so-called “opportunistic structures” that facilitate entry into far-right scenes. These include, for example, far-right groups that regularly organize concerts and events, or far-right political parties that present themselves as being close to ordinary citizens and young people. Whether young people are “lured” by these offers depends heavily on the socio-spatial conditions.

Through Kulturräume 2010, cultures interactive has supported municipalities in strengthening resilience and civil society resistance against right-wing extremism and group-focused hostility. Key municipal resilience factors and civil society resistance factors in this context include, among others:

• cooperative collaboration among government agencies, the police, independent organizations, and civil society initiatives
• open support for individuals threatened by right-wing extremism
• a culture that promotes human rights-based attitudes in the community and, above all, in educational institutions—such as kindergartens, schools, and youth clubs
• democratic participatory structures for young people and adults to help shape their social environment
• (Youth) Cultural diversity, efforts to combat the exclusion of certain groups
• Skill- and experience-based programs to support at-risk children and youth

Strengthening, professionalising and networking local efforts to prevent right-wing extremism

In order to establish and develop these factors, cultures interactive organised round-table discussions in Kulturräume 2010 between local stakeholders from youth work, schools, politics, the police, the press and the local government to agree on the objectives and content of local measures to prevent right-wing extremism. At these round-table discussions, moderated by cultures interactive, the various stakeholders networked with one another to agree on early-warning systems and possible interventions in the field of right-wing extremism. In addition, cultures interactive offered training sessions to raise awareness of current manifestations of right-wing extremism and shared its experiences and assessments from its work with young people with the network. Together, they discussed suitable measures for primary and secondary prevention. In a future workshop, representatives from youth work and support services, schools, politics, the police, the press and the local authority also came together with young people; in small groups, they exchanged views directly on their respective perspectives and discussed ways to improve youth culture and prevention strategies.

Developing participatory structures for and with young people

At the same time, political educators and teachers worked with the young people locally. cultures interactive organised school project days and workshops focusing on youth culture and engaged with the young people in discussions about their everyday interests and aspirations, as well as their experiences of violence and right-wing extremism. During social space surveys focusing on youth culture, we also worked with the young people to investigate where they liked to spend time and where they did not, which places were ‘occupied’ by specific youth groups, organisations or cliques, and which youth-oriented activities were lacking. In Open Space events, young people identified topics and objectives that they considered important for improving the local community: e.g. services better suited to young people, mobility, specific opportunities for participation in youth work, protection against attacks by far-right extremists.