{"id":2497,"date":"2023-09-18T14:51:21","date_gmt":"2023-09-18T14:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/horizon.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=2497"},"modified":"2023-09-18T14:51:21","modified_gmt":"2023-09-18T14:51:21","slug":"talking-tolerance-in-polarised-societies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/2497\/talking-tolerance-in-polarised-societies\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking tolerance in polarised societies"},"content":{"rendered":"

EU research projects provide fresh insights into what it takes for communities to accept different religious and world views.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u202f\u202fALISON JONES<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ann Trappers harnessed a shock in her native Belgium to help heal social wounds across Europe.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After Islamic terrorist attacks in Brussels in March 2016 left 35 people \u2013 including three suicide bombers \u2013 dead and more than 300 injured, Trappers and her colleagues at a non-governmental organisation called\u202f<\/span>Foyer<\/span><\/a>\u202fsought to rebuild community trust and cohesion.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

No taboos<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They used the NGO\u2019s long-established youth centre in the religiously and ethnically diverse neighbourhood of Molenbeek. Their experience fed into a research initiative that received EU funding to explore and foster religious tolerance in eight European countries.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018One of the ways in which we worked to counter radicalisation was to ensure it didn\u2019t become a taboo subject,\u2019 said Trappers, programme coordinator at Foyer. \u2018We wanted young people to be able to talk about it freely and safely in the setting of the youth centre.\u2019<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Concerns about growing polarisation in Europe have pushed the issue up the EU political agenda.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The portfolio of a vice-president of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas, includes dialogue with churches as well as religious associations and communities. The portfolio is called \u201cPromoting our European Way of Life\u201d. \u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The EU is also putting its weight behind various initiatives \u2013 including the\u202f<\/span>Radicalisation Awareness Network<\/span><\/a>\u202f\u2013 aimed at helping communities in Europe live harmoniously together.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The EU project in which Trappers was involved ran from May 2018 through October 2022 and was called\u202f<\/span>RETOPEA<\/span><\/a>. It brought together academic organisations from Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Poland and Spain as well as non-EU countries North Macedonia and the UK.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The project explored ways in which religion is regarded in the educational, professional and social realms. It also examined how peaceful religious coexistence has been established over history.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Past and present<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea was to use insights gained from the past to inform thinking about religious tolerance today. \u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s not often you get the opportunity as a historian to make your work relevant,\u2019 said Patrick Pasture, who coordinated RETOPEA and is a professor of modernity and society at Catholic University Leuven in Belgium.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The project delved into more than 400 primary source extracts from historical peace treaties, contemporary news reports and cultural snippets.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Based on these materials, teenagers from Foyer and other youth associations in each of the participating countries joined workshops to create their own video blog \u2013 or \u201cvlog\u201d \u2013 about religious tolerance and coexistence.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The vlogs, available on the RETOPEA\u202f<\/span>website<\/span><\/a>, include interviews with passersby, drawings and other creative work.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Pasture said the act of working together took the focus away from the participants\u2019 differences.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018The most important thing will always be that people have to learn to talk \u2013 to refrain from immediately judging,\u2019 he said.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Spreading the word<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Pasture was struck by the number of students who were unaware of the religious beliefs of classmates and by how open they were to talking about the issue.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He said most participants were upset about the divisiveness of contemporary discussions of religion and \u2018hated\u2019 the rise of polarisation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Around a year after RETOPEA wrapped up, the results and materials collected are informing actions by interfaith organisations, governmental bodies and European teacher associations.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The project team is regularly invited to make presentations at teaching workshops and seminars in the EU and beyond \u2013 places ranging from Austria and Italy to Jordan and Wales.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And the European Association of History Educators \u2013 established in 1992 to build educational bridges on the continent following the collapse of communism in eastern Europe \u2013 includes the RETOPEA materials on its website.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Middle ground<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another EU-funded research project looked specifically at the notion of tolerance \u2013 how it feels for people to push themselves to accept \u201cothers\u201d and what it feels like to be \u201ctolerated.\u201d The research relied mainly on questionnaires and online experiments.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018People have their own opinions and their own beliefs and we can\u2019t just expect them to give them up and consider everything of equal value,\u2019 said Maykel Verkuyten, who led the initiative and is a professor in interdisciplinary social science at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Called\u202f<\/span>InTo<\/span><\/a>\u202ffor Intergroup Toleration, the project ran for five years through September 2022.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In conducting studies in the Netherlands and Germany, Verkuyten and his team were pleasantly surprised to find that a clear majority of people regarded tolerance as an important societal value.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He said that most respondents agreed with, for example, the following two presented statements: \u201cI accept it when other people do things that I wholeheartedly disapprove of\u201d and \u201cEveryone is allowed to live as he or she wants, even if it is at odds with what I think is good and right\u201d.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On a cautionary note, the team also found that it\u2019s far easier to move people towards greater intolerance than it is to make them more tolerant.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Verkuyten is driven by an interest in the middle ground of the whole subject \u2013 where space exists for differing views without any desire either to crush or to celebrate them.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He said this zone must be promoted through civics courses, human-rights lessons and other educational initiatives to help ensure the health of democracies and multicultural societies.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018There is something in between being very negative, discriminatory, and fully embracing all diversity,\u2019 Verkuyten said. \u2018That\u2019s essential for a functioning liberal democracy and indispensable for a culturally diverse society.\u2019<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Research in this article was funded by the EU via the European Research Council (ERC).\u00a0<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

More info<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n