The antirumours strategy and multi-level learning

The anti-rumour strategy. History has shown that processes of
social polarisation and the increase of populism and xenophobic discourses, even
if they do not amount to hate speech, can have very negative and even
catastrophic consequences. Unfortunately, these processes are on the rise
around the globe. Such narratives often
hark back to an idealised past, and create barriers between “us” and “them”, defined
in ethnic, national, cultural, economic, or religious terms.

The Antirumours Strategy is a long-term
process of social change that
seeks to prevent discrimination, improve coexistence, and harness the potential
for diversity by triggering a change in perceptions,
attitudes, and behaviours among the general population and specific
target groups.

In order to reach these global goals, the
antirumours strategy (ARS) focuses on three specific objectives:

• –  To engage and empower a wide range of stakeholders and citizens by
  implementing a local public policy and building a cooperative multi-level
  social platform within the framework of a long-term “antirumours city strategy”
• –  To influence the political and social agenda so that reducing prejudices
  and preventing discrimination is recognised as a crucial collective goal for
  society as a whole.
• –  To promote critical thinking and raise awareness of the negative effects
  of stereotypes, prejudices, and false rumours by implementing innovative and
  participative activities that reduce them, and challenging the negative
  narratives around diversity.

The ARS’ innovative methodology combines
the promotion of a local public policy with a process of social participation
to engage and involve a wide variety of civil society actors.

The ARS focuses on the way stereotypes
and prejudice are created and above all on how to reduce them or, at least,
reduce their negative impact. It was first promoted in 2010 in Barcelona as one
of the actions of the city’s Intercultural Plan.

From its inception, the strategy drew the
attention of many cities and organisations internationally. Based on the
project’s positive results, in 2014, the Council of Europe led a European
project to adapt and evaluate the antirumours methodology in 10 European
cities, where it has shown diverse and positive impacts, including some improvement
in citizens’ perceptions about diversity issues in general and specific groups
in particular such as migrants, refugees, ethnic minorities.

In recent years, the ARS has also
attracted interest from cities, governments, and organisations from
non-European countries such as Japan, Canada, Mexico, Jordan, Morocco, Chile,
Colombia, New Zealand and the USA, among others.

How do antirumours cities
explain the "success" of the ARS?

– Focus
on rumours:  Designing an initiative
that focuses on rumours and not on other abstract or overly technical concepts
has proved decisive in attracting attention, generating interest, and affording
the pretext to tackle other issues and wider and more complex debates.

–  The “not blaming citizens” approach: The commitment to an approach based on empathy and not on
blaming people for having prejudices, especially focusing on the ambiguous
feelings of the majority of the population, rather than on the minority who are
dedicated to spreading xenophobic and hate speech, has also allowed us to reach
and attract the interest of many people who do not usually feel challenged by
other discourses, and who tend to dislike a certain moral superiority and
disdain.

 – Combining public policy and the city’s
"social movements": The fact that the ARS
consists of a public policy, but is also based on a strategy with a high
participatory and collaborative component, especially insofaras it builds local
antirumours networks, that involve a wide range of actors from civil society
and citizens in general, is valued as a great asset that must be preserved and
consolidated.

 – Much more than spreading factual data and
arguments: The belief (and the evidence shown by experiences and numerous
studies) that simple dissemination of objective data has a minimal impact in
influencing perceptions, prejudices, and narrative changes, but that other more
qualitative approaches that include the emotional component, dialogue, and the
promotion of critical thinking, are key aspects in achieving greater long-term
impact.

– A commitment to empowerment: Focusing a part of the
strategy on the empowerment of very diverse actors, through the antirumours
agents, deploying various formative actions and providing practical tools to help
people confront prejudices and negative narratives about diversity more
effectively is another key aspect of the success of the ARS.

– Value,
the work that has already being done: Building the ARS up by identifying
and involving the maximum number of experiences, projects, and key players that
have been working on these issues and combining them into a collective and
cooperative process of social change, is key to maximizing resources and
energies, as well as achieving greater impact and guaranteeing the
sustainability of the ARS over time.

– Creativity,
flexibility and adaptability: One of the main weaknesses of some traditional awareness-raising
initiatives is their inability to reach and engage mainstream audiences, and
not just those minorities that are already sensitive to the issue. In order to
expand the target audience the strategy needs to be both creative and
innovative at all levels.

If we want to engage and motivate people to take
an active role in this process, this experience must be exciting, motivating
and, especially, useful and effective. The ability to adapt the antirumours approach to very
different contexts and scopes, and expand its field of influence from a
methodology that combines rigour with flexibility has also been highlighted as
one of its main strengths.

The
Council of Europe, through its Intercultural Cities programme, is currently
publishing an Antirumours Handbook to provide a detailed explanation of the
antirumours approach and methodology, as we as many practical and inspiring
examples from 20 cities that have been implementing an antirumours strategy. We
think this will be a very useful tool to keep spreading the ARS while we also enrich
and improve it, learning from the exchange of knowhow and lessons learned,
identifying both the strengths and the weaknesses. The ARS must be seen as an
innovative tool to work from the local level if we are to face some of the most
relevant, global and crucial challenges our societies are facing right now.