Civil actors’ role in deradicalisation and disengagement initiatives

Based on ethnographic interviews¹ with around 50 individuals who have participated in radical and/or violent right- or left-wing groups in Northern Europe (Christensen 2009, 2015, Christensen & Mørck 2017), this chapter provides insight into extremists’ experiences and frameworks of understanding and interpretation. It will illustrate why participants in radical and extreme groups represent a difficult target group to reach by initiatives aimed at disengagement and deradicalisation run by state and public actors in North European welfare states and why, as the chapter argues, civil actors per se seem better positioned to gain legitimacy among them.