OppAttune Project

OppAttune tracks the evolution of oppositional extreme ideologies and protectionist decision-making, develops an innovative attunement model and tests a series of interventions at the national and transnational levels which limit the spread of extremism. OppAttune revitalises trust in key democratic institutions. Its actions involve an on-line I-Attune self-test interactive to build democratic capacity across diverse publics. OppAttune will create an OppAttune Summer Academy for students and researchers (2025) and an OppAttune Winter Academy for practitioners and policymakers (2026). OppAttune provides micro, meso and macro level evidence-based recommendations and strategies designed to counter the potential of extreme narratives to disrupt democratic growth.  It delivers this via a multi-disciplinary consortium of 17 countries across the European Union and its periphery. 

Democracies and the European project are under threat by extremism and lack of political and social dialogue. Existential insecurities arising out of economic and refugee-related crises have been exacerbated by Covid-19 to create re-bordering e.g. xenophobic-nationalism and re-shoring e.g. the localisation of production. Oppositional worldviews, narratives and dissensus within public debate are all vital to a functioning democracy.  However destructive polarisation of oppositional us/them logic is at the core of the rise of extremist narratives. Disruptive actors polarise oppositional logic using disinformation, emotions, hot cognitions, conspiracy theories and mistrust to create new forms of direct action. This direct action is understood to many as direct democracy. This direct action cultivates unlikely coalitions creating attractive alternative on-line/off-line worlds which spread extreme narratives into the mainstream via deep rooted sociological and historical pathways. OppAttune will track, attune and limit extreme narratives to foreground EU transnational freedoms and multilateralism. 

OppAttune is funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe Framework Programme, and is coordinated by Panteion University (Greece), The Open University (UK), and Glasgow Caledonian University (UK). In addition to Özyeğin University, the project’s consortium partners include: American University of Paris (France), Malmö University (Sweden), Cultures Interactive (Germany), Oesterreichische Akademie Der Wissenschaften (Austria), Universita Ta Malta (Malta), Istanbul Bilgi University (Turkey), University of Cyprus (Cyprus), Institut Jozef Stefan (Slovenia), Universidade De Coimbra (Portugal), International Security Affairs Centre (Serbia), Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (Kosovo), Hammurabi Human Rights Organization (Iraq), and PRONI Center (Bosnia). 

From Özyeğin University, Dr Susan Beth Rottmann (Principal Investigator) and Dr Samarjit Ghosh (Researcher) will conduct research on the development of extremist or anti-democratic thinking in everyday interactions, using immersive ethnography and participatory action research. As part of the ‘Extremism and Living Democracies’ work package, they will also work with researchers in Germany, Portugal, Serbia, Bosnia, and the UK, to develop good practices case studies report, methods handbooks, and policy strategy briefs, for attuned social and political dialogue.

Project duration: 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2026

Website: oppattune.eu

Further information: Susan Beth Rottmann, Samarjit Ghosh

UN Sustainable Development Goals

This project contributes to the following SDGs (adopted by all member states as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development):