Young People and Extremism

Young People and Extremism - Some reflections from our of local studies The Institute of Community Cohesion (iCoCo) has conducted a number of reviews of community cohesion across a range of local authorities in different parts of the country and has in each case engaged directly with younger people from many backgrounds in their own community settings. In all, we have spoken with more than 1,000 young people in informal focus groups, covering most regions, including London and largely in urban settings. This study reflects the views we have obtained and draws together some of the common threads. From this we have developed a conceptual framework, which looks at the very wide range of pressures upon young people and especially the key influences. We hope to extend our research and to be able to better understand some of these key strands and, in particular, to further consider what might allow some of the disaffection to be turned into more positive attitudes. We also hope that this study may prove helpful to local authorities and their partners by providing them with a framework to analyse their own particular local context. We have been struck by the fact that although there are common features (and it is these we discuss in more detail below), this is not an area of work where ‘one size fits all’. Further, the local circumstances and the influences in each community appear to be crucial and this underlines the importance of local authorities and other agencies being prepared to engage in this important and sensitive issue.