The idea of OppAttune was developed to acknowledge and harness the vital role that oppositional thinking and behaviour plays in politics and the democratic process. But equally to acknowledge that the same oppositional thinking leads to a divisive ‘us’ and ‘them’ logic, which connects to polarisation. Oppositional politics often mobilises a sense of threat and risk. OppAttune defines extremism as a wish to remove or annihilate the other person or party.

OppAttune develops an attunement model which will limit the evolution of extreme political narratives. The process of attunement will enable specific political situations – such as elections and referenda – which inevitably become oppositional to remain in tune between the relevant parties.

OppAttune’s main innovation will be to develop an Attunement Model for six key target groups: the general public, young citizens, media influencers, practitioners & policymakers, political actors, and the scientific research community. The model will enable citizens to understand, analyse and develop democratic capacity to engage in public dialogue within oppositional politics. OppAttune will implement this Attunement Model within Year 3 and provide the European Commission and the target groups with recommendations and strategies for building citizen’s democratic capacity.

This will allow stakeholders to operate within oppositional political environments – in particular the ability to detect and reject extreme narratives. OppAttune will do this by explicitly focusing on both the means through which democratic practices are engaged in everyday life (through local community interactions and social media) and the shared messages that, potentially, threaten democratic practices by promoting extreme narratives