Chapter 2
About Nordic Safe Cities
Why cities
Across the globe and in the Nordics, there has been a resurgence of focus on prevention efforts to identify and reach at-risk individuals before they are radicalised, become part of the hate and violence in extremist groups and, in the worst cases, commit attacks. Prevention directed at tackling the underlying inequalities and socio-economic issues is paramount, and the ability to reach and inspire people and communities to produce resilience to extremist hate and violence is essential.
Cities are uniquely positioned to lead preventive efforts. Local public and welfare services meet citizens on the streets and are able to gather and report local concerns and act quickly. As such, cities have the capacity to lead the conversation around community safety. They play an essential role in increasing resilience to extremism by facilitating collaboration between frontline social workers, health workers, schoolteachers, civil society organisations, police and local businesses.
The Nordic cities are well suited to build the social cohesion and community resilience that have proven effective at preventing extremism at the local level. Cities are generally quite pragmatic in their decision-making and form their policies and projects around local safety needs and challenges. Initiatives at the city level have a high chance of succeeding, as competent local leaders can foster local engagement and participation that often lead to real-time improvements and change.
The Nordic DNA and approach
All member cities base their efforts to create safer cities and prevent violent extremism on the core values of their welfare states and the Nordic model of democracy. This entails a state and government that provides protection from physical and social risks, fundamental freedom for all, mutual respect, trust and equality under the law. The Nordic region is amongst the most equal and least corrupt areas in the world, with member cities across the five Nordic countries reporting that between 71 to 95% of their citizens feel safe in their neighbourhoods or in the cities in general.
Violent extremism in the Nordics is not only considered a security matter, but a societal challenge that can be overcome through preventative initiatives addressing the underlying causes. The scientific evidence for the impact of socio-economic circumstances on a person’s support for extremist sentiments is inconclusive. But this changes when we shift our attention from the overall socio-economic situation to disparities within a country or city. In developed societies such as the Nordics that have a high standard of living, feelings of disenfranchisement seem to spur frustrations and increase susceptibility to extremist sentiments. While overall standards of living may have improved for many people in recent decades, socio-economic inequalities have also increased across the Nordic countries since the 1980s. Socio-economic inequality is not only a root cause of extremism and hate, it also increases public health disparities, rates of crime and substance abuse, and decreases feelings of safety and urban security.
The Nordic countries have a long tradition of cooperation and share many similarities in their responses to societal challenges. Prevention of violent extremism and hate is high on the political agenda across the countries and cities, but there are differences in how preventative efforts are implemented and the reasoning behind them. Collectively, the Nordic cities focus on early prevention initiatives that promote social cohesion, democratic values and resilient communities with a particular focus on vulnerable youth. A general tendency in the Nordics is to integrate new extremism prevention efforts into existing national and local crime prevention structures. This is done in close cooperation with schools, law enforcement, health and social welfare agencies in order to identify and reach at-risk individuals.
Nordic cities typically operate in what’s known as the prevention pyramide with the following measures:
Definitions
A common understanding of extremism is that it has two dimensions: rejection of democracy and universal human rights, and justification of the use of violence for ideological goals.
The Nordic countries have fairly similar definitions of violent extremism. We have captured these by applying the following definition in our work, particularly inspired by the definition in the Finnish National Action Plan from 2019:
Violent extremism: Refers to using, threatening with, instigating, encouraging or justifying violence based on ideological grounds.
The Nordic countries have differing definitions to what politically and legally constitutes extremist hate, and when hate is deemed a crime and a criminal offence. However, the purpose of preventing extremist hate remains similar across the Nordics: From a societal standpoint, extremist hate is a threat to democracy, and to people’s personal safety and security, well-being, sense of participation, as well as their fundamental human rights. Based on this, as a common understanding in the Nordics, Nordic Safe Cities define extremist hate in the following way, again inspired by the definition in the Finnish National action plan from 2019.
Extremist hate: Is hate motivated by an ideology and a system of belief that claims superiority over others. Extremist hate can be targeted towards individuals or groups using non-violent and more subtle means as well as through violent or explicit means.
Nordic Safe City Charter
In the Nordic Safe Cities Alliance, the overall approach to prevention in Nordic cities is captured by the Safe City Charter. The charter outlines the key ways cities can act to strengthen their citizens’ resilience to extremism. Since 2016, the charter has formed the thematic base for the initiatives taken within the Nordic Safe Cities Alliance and guided our support for the cities’ preventive work. Many of our member cities have tailor-made local initiatives within these areas.
Building safe and resilient communities
At Nordic Safe Cities, we take action to create safe urban spaces that are open and inviting to everyone, and to promote a safe online life without hate, fear or threats. We want to empower citizens to identify and withstand disinformation and polarisation online, and we act with families to safeguard children from harm and abuse on- and offline. We engage and support civil servants, empower youth voices, and work with local communities to create resilience.
We invite you to read the portraits of our member cities here, including their strategies for the prevention of violent extremism and some of their current initiatives.
Read member portraitsNordic Safe Cities
Why and What
Nordic Safe Cities exists to help cities improve their resilience to all forms of extremism. An alliance of 20 member cities, we help develop and implement policies and projects locally that can contribute to a safer Nordic region. Nordic Safe Cities was initiated and funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2016 and has since brought together more than 50 cities from the Nordic Region as well as +800 experts and professionals.
At Nordic Safe Cities, we:
Connect cities with other cities and thinkers to get easy and quick access to improve the local work while saving time and resources in the process.
Provide local advisory service for innovation in the city and the ability to connect peer-to-peer on emerging and immediate issues to prevent extremism.
Enable cities to showcase their work to promote their efforts and scale what works across the Nordics and globally.
Who and How
Nordic Safe Cites functions as a Thinkcubator. We create safe cities together, help each other stand against the rise of polarisation and safeguard citizens from extremist violence and hate. We support each other to create and grow safe city strategies and action plans. We provide advice and resources and build networks and communities that can help spread ideas and catalyse action. We mobilise leading experts and push forward innovative change through existing evidence-based research. We use our knowledge, shared experiences and expert support to help address the questions and dilemmas faced by the cities.
As of today, the Nordic Safe Cities Alliance consists of the following 20 cities:
Aalborg
Arendal
Bodø
Bærum
Copenhagen
Fredrikstad
Gothenburg
Helsinki
Kristiansand
Larvik
Malmö
Odense
Oslo
Reykjavik
Skien
Sarpsborg
Stavanger
Stockholm
Tromsø
Vantaa