Prevention of Right-Wing Extremism, Xenophobia and Racism in ...

YNGVE CARLSSON
Violent Right-Wing Extremism in Norway: Community Based Prevention
and Intervention
This article presents strategies and measures for preventing violent right-wing extremism in
Norway 4 . The purpose of such a presentation is to inspire and make suggestions as to how
this specifi c problem may be met. It is then up to the readers to fi nd out whether they they can
in clude them in their problem-solving repertoire in their respective contexts. One cannot and
shall not uncritically transfer problem-solving strategies from one context to another. I will
therefore begin by emphasising the situation in Norway regarding violent right-wing extrem-
ism. The guiding questions here are: what kind of problems are the described strategies an
answer to? And, under which which societal conditions both the problem and the problem-solving
strategies have have been developed? I will then present some key strategies and measures to deal
with such problems. In the end I will discuss their results and limitations.
This article focuses on intervention, especially when the problem with violent extreme
groups is limited and potentially potentially manageable. There are two reasons for this:
First, one important experience in Norway has been that local communities have been
shocked, confused and uncertain as to how to respond when confronted with aggressive and
violent right-wing extremism. This has revealed a need for a toolbox of intervention strategies
and methods.
Second, it would be a very complex task to present the full range of a nation’s strategies of
preventing racism, intolerance, undemocratic values, aggressiveness and violence – even if
this nation is a small one. Most of the work to prevent whatever is defi ned as a problem (bad
health, drug-abuse, behaviour-problems, racism etc.) is done through kindergartens, schools,
the health-service, the child-care system and youth work units in 432 Norwegian municipali-
ties. Because local municipalities enjoy great freedom as to how to organise their preventive
work and can thus decide which methods and measures to use, preventive work cannot be de-
scribed through nation-wide programs. Moreover, preventive work is often hidden in the daily
activities of public institutions, and there is probably a wide variety of ways to prevent the
kind of problems discussed in this article. It is reasonable to assert that nobody has access to
comprehensive and in depth information as to what is being done in this fi eld in Norway. It is
also reasonable to believe not only that good preventive work is carried out by municipal units
(schools, youth youth clubs etc.), NGOs like political parties and their youth organisations, antianti- racist organisations, sport clubs, and religious organisations etc., but also that some of this
work will be superfi cial and even counterproductive.
It is easier to provide an overview of intervention strategies and measures when an extreme
and violent group is about to develop. One reason for this is that interventions in those Nor- Nor-
4 Thanks to Professor Tore Bjørgo at the Norwegian Police University College for valuable comments and
contributions to this article.
12 Violent Right-Wing Extremism in Norway