Project Goals
The EMMELO Project aims to critically explore the role of masculinity in online extremist movements across Europe and to develop tools and strategies to counter their anti-democratic impacts.
- Map and deepen understanding of how extremist movements in six European countries (Ireland, Sweden, France, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia) use narratives of masculinity online to promote anti-democratic, anti-EU, and anti-human rights attitudes. This includes analysing media and social platforms, conducting interviews with civil society actors, and using data scraping and gender-based analysis to map extremist communities and build national profiles for EMMELO’s Gender and Online Extremism (GOE) Digital Observatory.
- Analyse and contrast the gender-based experiences of men engaging with online extremism. Through interviews, case studies, and surveys in each country, the project seeks to understand motivations, perceptions of extremist leadership, and how masculinity shapes engagement with extremist narratives and views on democracy and EU values.
- Develop pathways to identify and disrupt harmful, inaccurate gender-based narratives used by extremist leadership. This includes profiling communicative styles of extremist leaders, conducting discourse analysis, and co-developing evidence-based counternarratives and alternative leadership models, culminating in policy recommendations and a cross-European report.
- Build national and transnational networks with civil society and NGOs to foster collaborative research and knowledge-sharing. EMMELO will establish the GOE Digital Observatory and develop the T.A.L.K. Toolkit—a multilingual resource designed to raise awareness and promote dialogue through Watch, Reflect, and Engage stages. Training sessions will be tailored to diverse audiences including policymakers, educators, and grassroots actors.
- Raise awareness of EMMELO’s work through strategic dissemination and communication. This includes launching the project website, blog, and social media, producing multilingual content tailored to each country, and hosting an end-of-project conference to present the GOE Digital Observatory and T.A.L.K. Toolkit to policymakers and practitioners across Europe.