Breaking the dichotomy: Non-binary belonging as a tool for inclusive societies

Abstract

Contemporary societies are increasingly polarised as individuals align with smaller identity-based groups, often resulting in echo chambers that fragment broader communities. This paper introduces a non-binary analytical framework to explore sense of belonging beyond identity constructs, emphasising situationality and shared experiences. Drawing on data from the D. Rad project (2020–2024), which investigated radicalisation and polarisation, we argue that fractured belonging—manifested as alienation, discrimination, and marginalisation—can foster radicalisation by intensifying self-other dichotomies. The non-binary approach transcends traditional identity-focused models, such as intersectionality, by prioritising shared contexts and fluid connections over dichotomised identities. Our study highlights arts and sports as effective interventions for promoting non-binary belonging. These activities create inclusive spaces where individuals from diverse backgrounds connect through shared interests, mitigating feelings of exclusion and fostering cohesion. By reframing belonging as a dynamic and situational process, we propose that non-binary belonging can counter polarisation and reduce the stigmatisation of marginalised groups. Ultimately, this framework offers a pathway to inclusive societies by addressing the root causes of radicalisation through shared experiences that bridge divides. Our findings contribute to the fields of belonging studies, deradicalisation, and social cohesion, emphasising the transformative potential of non-binary belonging.

Introduction

In contemporary societies, people increasingly connect with smaller identity groups, such as vegan or LGBTQ+, but feel less connected to larger, more varied communities. Their small groups often evolve into echo chambers, where people only interact with those alike at the expense of shielding away from the wider community. Thus, it becomes harder for people to experience what they might have in common with those outside their group. This leads to fractures in societies paving the way to stigmatisation and discrimination of certain groups as others and possible foes. Our paper introduces a non-binary approach as an analytical framework to analyse sense of belonging in such situations and proposes promoting this approach as an intervention to the root causes of radicalisation. While this concept is well-known in gender studies and used mainly for understanding how gender identity functions (Butler, 2004; Matsuno and Budge, 2017), its potential to explain other types of belongingness has not yet been fully explored. Our use draws on the performative and fluid foundations of non-binary theory in gender (Rubin, 1993; West and Zimmerman, 1987), but departs from its identity-based application to focus instead on situationality and shared experiences across social contexts. Therefore, situationality as an essence of sense of belonging may matter more than identity. Thus far, fluidity has offered a capacity to grasp an adjustment in identity and related sets of behaviours. However, focus on identity with fluidity as a lens tends to ignore the fact that identities require an opponent to exist. In other words, identities are dichotomised in nature and we need to examine sense of belonging to grasp how individuals coalesce with each other. Our research argues that there is a need to go beyond how we interpret an individual’s sense of belonging merely through identity as its enabler. We consider sense of belonging as a situation independent of identities and operationalise sense of belonging as an elaborate analytical approach to capture fluidity in people’s behaviours and lives to discuss the tenets of inclusive societies. This means that for us sense of belonging matters more than identity to counterpose self and other.

The empirical part of this article reflects on data gathered throughout the D. Rad project (2020-2024), which has been a comparative study of radicalisation and polarisation in Europe and beyond. The project aimed to identify actors, networks, and wider social contexts driving radicalisation, particularly among young people. In our D. Rad project, we placed the feeling of exclusion and alienation at the heart of the radicalisation processes of individuals. These feelings commonly cause isolation for people, who are vulnerable to having their sense of belonging thwarted and emerge as wayward others for self. If wider society represents the self for the other, then the other may find themselves grieved, alienated, and polarised in the end. In this regard, we take radicalisation as an outcome of the breakup of sense of belonging and suggest interventions that are poised to achieve non-binary sense of belonging as deradicalisation media. This could be a solution for polarisation and introduce research on non-binary beyond the scope of identity but into situationality, which may cultivate sense of belonging for those that may experience self-other dichotomy otherwise. In other words, we look at situations that encapsulate sense of belonging that makes other an extension of the self rather than foe as those that prevents radicalisation. As a result of this understanding, we focus on individual reflections on exclusion and alienation. For this paper, we concentrated on sports and arts activities undertaken to examine how they have bolstered sense of belonging by giving access to shared situations, where people with different backgrounds gathered around a common interest and tackle feelings of exclusion thereafter. We argue that there are gradients of belongingness that can be captured by a “non-binary” focus more fluently.

Hence, we advocate that to build more inclusive societies we must reconceptualise the definition of how a group is composed, which rests on situations of “non-binary” sense of belongingness actualised when people find like-minded others for their shared interests. This is how we interpret the space that arts and sports-related activities may offer to their participants. Therefore, we engage with interventions based on this understanding to see how non-binary sense of belonging can be experienced and entertained by their partakers. In this effort, we took participatory arts- and sports-related activities to tackle feelings of social isolation, disadvantage, and fractured sense of belonging. In our understanding non-binary situations as such would offer opportunities for greater dialogue, dispose stigmatisation and discrimination. Arts and sports related activities generate shared interest (Atalay, 2022; Atalay et al., 2024; Can Atalay and Korkut, 2023), which we interpret as a driver of non-binary sense of belonging. In the following sections, we will discuss how arts and sports activities foster situations of non-binary sense of belonging as they generate shared experiences for their partakers. While our focus is on situationality over identity, we also recognize that individual backgrounds—such as migration histories or ethnic minority status—can influence how people enter and engage with these non-binary situations. Acknowledging these nuances enriches our understanding of how shared experiences generate belonging.

Conceptual discussion

Our paper adopts a non-binary approach to understanding the sense of belonging that emerges in highly diverse contexts. Other scholars have approached belonging through frameworks such as intersectionality (Anthias, 2006; Crenshaw, 2013), super-diversity (Vertovec, 2007), and conviviality (Gilroy, 2004). While these approaches acknowledge identity complexity and cross-cultural interaction, they still often rely on identity categories as foundational units of analysis. Intersectionality, for example, highlights how axes of identity like race, gender, and class intersect to create compounded experiences of marginalization. Super-diversity focuses on the proliferation of differences, particularly in migration contexts, but retains identity as a structuring lens. In contrast, our approach departs from this by focusing on the situationality of belonging, where shared experiences—not pre-existing identities—generate connection. Rather than reading belonging through identity, we propose reading identity through belonging situations. High-level of diversity has recently led to polarisation in societies between self and other and evolved into a cause of radicalisation (Garbaye and Latour, 2016). We inquire how a more inclusive sense of belonging can be harnessed for diversity situationalities to prevent possible radicalisation. Such situations would attract people with varied identities and generate a sense of belonging that transcends dichotomised essences such as nationality, religion, or ethnicity. In non-binary situations without a dominant way of living, individuals can experience a sense of belonging regardless of their background. By applying a non-binary approach as such to belonging, our paper aims to move beyond the existing literature that examines the intersectional and fluid relations among different identities and propose innovative ways to explore what can make sense of belonging more cohesive if approached with a non-binary focus. To be more precise, this is not another attempt to re-read identities in the extant intersectionality, fluidity, conviviality or super-diversity literatures, but to provide an opportunity to capture how fluidity becomes more manifest when sense of belonging originates from non-binary situations.

Our non-binary approach also takes a step further from the existing literature that attempts to read interrelationships between different types of identities. Intersectionality is the most popular approach in the literature to read such interrelationships. Intersectionality literature examines intersectional negotiations and collisions between binary identities such as gender, religion and ethnicity (Bugg, 2022) or class, gender and caste (Gerharz, 2014) or whiteness and indigenousness (Reyes Cruz and Sonn, 2014) and gender and disability (Pestka and Wendt, 2014). Even though intersectionality scholars acknowledge the fragmented, partial and complex nature of identities their focus remains on binary identities. In this regard, as intersectionality examines the influence of socio-political contexts on binary identities, it may capture the fluid transition between binary socio-political identities in different contexts. For instance, how a person adopts a religious identity in one context and a national identity in another. However, it is not too effective to examine more mundane, less structured but still influential sense of belonging, where the impact of social or political contexts may be relatively less or ignored by the individuals.

Some individuals pose a challenge to the conventional understanding of the concept by nourishing varied types of sense of belonging that extend beyond their immediate or traditional identities. From the perspective of intersectionality identity literature, such individuals can be labelled as non-belongs as their sense of belonging cannot be explained through an identity reading. However, in our understanding, the belonging of the non-belongs does also matter. The idea of belonging and being included encapsulate the possibility of being excluded as well. The concept of belonging emphasizes the social aspects of living in the world with others and relating to others in a certain historical and cultural context. Even though there is research that focuses on inclusion and belonging, an exploration of non-belonging is rare. Harris and Gandolfo (2014) mention this concept as the possibility of marginality seen as a mode of belonging, and they define such people as individuals who enjoy the ‘comfort in not being something’. In our understanding, intersectional approaches fail to capture fragmentations in societies. That is why we reflect on a non-binary sense of belonging to embrace extant inclusiveness and explore different types of belongingness.

In order to discuss what we can infer from this conceptual argumentation to intervene into those situations where fractured sense of belonging can be rampant, we turn our focus to those who are prone to being radicalised. We interpret radicalisation as a situation where the relationship between the self and other is so fractured that the other emerges as one’s foe rather than a possible extension of the self. This means that we evaluate fractured sense of belonging in itself as a harbinger of radicalisation. Socio-political systems may generate hierarchies with which individuals need to negotiate their ways of living as well. It is the majority in every society that sets a way of living for each individual. This is despite all recent progress with equality and diversity. Therefore, any individual with a different way of living, i.e., wayward and failing to conform to the majority can end up in being outcasted and excluded. In those situations, socio-political systems assume such individuals as failed citizens, who could not keep up with the majority way of living and may even label them as a potential security problem for the wider society. If we take modern societies as a community of values that are populated by people that share similar ways of living and are law-abiding, the unfitting other may stand out as a group of people that have failed to fit into this community considering their different way of living (Anderson, 2013: 3). Therefore, having wayward living could lead to being public enemy allowing the wider society demand that they are deradicalised.

Wayward living would hence bring stigmatisation and discrimination. Particular groups such as migrants or members of minority groups with their distinguishable ways of living, are more likely to experience these than the others. However, for some even though they share fundamental characteristics of the majority, stigmatisation and discrimination are not necessarily happenstance. There is a thin line between who is wayward and who is not, and this is always strict and binary. An insistence on identity-based belonging, therefore, could make individuals vulnerable to radicalisation. In contrast, non-binary situations of sense of belonging may coagulate the latter if fluidity rather than fractured sense of belonging is more evident.

Belongingness

In different literatures, sense of belonging is often defined as a positive feeling of being an integral part of one’s social and physical environment (Hagerty et al., 1996; Mahar et al., 2013; Tachine et al., 2017). Such definitions capture one of the most fundamental human desires to experience a meaningful connection to one’s family, friends, community, cultural groups, and physical environments, which is expected to enhance one’s psychological well-being and fulfilment (Allen, 2020; Strayhorn, 2018). Thus, we can say that belonging is related to feelings of safety and a feeling of being understood and accepted within the collective entity (Antonsich, 2010; Porter et al., 2021; Wood and Waite, 2011). Therefore, a sense of belonging is generally taken as a subjective feeling that encompasses community, acceptance, respect, inclusion, identification, or connectedness to a specific context and a group. The traditional concept of belonging can also appear rather fixed and linear. Our understanding of the concept of sense of belonging is, however, shaped by politics of belonging literature (Anthias, 2006; Guibernau, 2013; Yuval-Davis, 2006). As such, belonging is perceived as an individual’s deliberate claim to acquiring membership of socially constructed collectives resulting in their identification with them. The politics of belonging literature suggest that sense of belonging is a dynamic and evolving phenomenon (Birkner, 2020; Jones and Krzyzanowski, 2008; Lähdesmäki et al., 2016; Osei-Kofi, 2012; Savage et al., 2004). It is continually negotiated and it evolves throughout an individual’s lifetime (Afonso et al., 2023). The resulting fluidity allows individuals to navigate, engage with, and feel a sense of belonging across various socio-cultural and political contexts, relationships, and affiliations over time.

Alienation, discrimination and marginalisation

Current politics imply a series of disruptions, such as the election of Trump or the Brexit vote, that also polarise societies. As we stated above, our D. Rad project has placed a fractured sense of belonging as an element of radicalisation and followed social inclusion-oriented interventions to facilitate a non-binary sense of belonging as part of deradicalization processes. Polarising political incidents can be outcomes of various societal and economic events, including the refugee crisis, increased income inequality or even wars in distant geographies. As a result, polarization continues to adversely affect the sense of belongingness of individuals. As we discussed above, belongingness is experienced by individuals that compose societies and these individuals’ socio-political-cultural situations have indisputable effects on one`s sense of belongingness. Therefore, political or economic incidents may affect someone’s confidence and their perception of missing opportunities. Such feelings could easily trigger sense of exclusion for these individuals. As a result, these feelings can affect citizens’ relationship with their communities or the level of trust citizens have in the institutions governing their lives. As we mentioned above, we elaborate on radicalisation with the guidance of sense of belonging if fractured. In this regard, we argue that, if we take belonging as a process that involves engagement with socio-political-cultural processes, then we must consider their effect on exclusion as well as capacity to strip belongingness of an individual or group.

Powell and Menenian (2016) identify the capacity to “other” by interpreting fractured sense of belonging as “a set of dynamics, processes, and structures that engender marginality and persistent inequality across any of the full range of human differences based on group identities”; and clarify that “dimensions of fractured sense of belonging include, but are not limited to, religion, sex, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status (class), disability, sexual orientation, and skin tone”. However, fractured sense of belonging is a dynamic concept as it is a process that could capture various types of expressions of prejudice towards different groups in societies. Therefore, the others of the societies can change in time and context. Powell and Menenian summarise their understating by defining fractured sense of belonging as “a broadly inclusive conceptual framework that captures expressions of prejudice and behaviours such as atavism and tribalism, but it is also a term that points toward deeper processes at work, only some of which are captured by those terms”. Haely discusses belonging involving the failure to belong either through the loss of a sense of belonging (not-belonging) or the removal of membership belonging (un-belonging) (Haely, 2020). In our understanding, fractured sense of belonging could trigger three feelings that are highly related to radicalisation; feelings of alienation; discrimination; and marginalisation. The people who feel any of these may perceive themselves as left behind and some of them may even harvest grievance towards the wider society and blame it for their exclusion. Eventually, polarisation is also highly related to these both as an outcome and a trigger.

In this article, we take the feeling of alienation as isolation from the way everyday sites under the spectre of politics. People who feel alienated often suffer from a loss of connection with the political class, a trend well-documented in studies on political disengagement and the erosion of trust in democratic institutions (Mair, 2023; Norris, 2011). Their disconnection to the socio-political life of their community, city or country hinders their sense of belonging and accentuates their fractured sense of belonging to the point of seeing politics itself as an enabler of fractured sense of belonging. The consequences of this process may be lack of trust in government and institutions and, finally, in democracy as an institution. In our understanding, discrimination can significantly weaken civic participation by eroding trust and belonging, particularly among marginalised communities (Modood, 2013; Portes and Rumbaut, 2001). While our participants express discrimination as a felt experience, these feelings often stem from concrete structural or institutional exclusions—such as barriers to employment, education, or public representation—making them both subjective and rooted in material realities. In this sense, perceived discrimination often reflects actual societal patterns of marginalisation. For the discriminated individual, the agents of fractured sense of belonging could be the states where they live in or the wider communities in which they partake. Lastly, marginalisation is often embedded in socio-political systems that shape identity and self-perception through institutional patterns of exclusion (Fraser, 2000; Young, 2016). The fractured sense of belonging highlights different divisions such as class, gender, origin, religion, ethnicity and similar. In response to fractured sense of belonging, therefore, we believe that there is a need to foreground the non-binary sense of belonging in situations where identities thus far set the norms of belongingness. Rather than identities we need to look into situations. Boosting sense of belonging through shared interests and spaces can avail deradicalisation as they make non-binary situations more tangible.

Methodology

The empirical data for this paper was collected through ethnographic methods, including focus group interviews and participant observations between July 2022 and 2023 in UK, Poland, Slovenia, Israel, Serbia and Italy, to explore the lived experiences of 37 research participants from three different groups, including migrants and members of ethnic minorities. By spending extended periods with participants, we observed activities, significant events, and interpersonal interactions, following the principles of ethnographic fieldwork that emphasize “active looking, improving memory, informal interviewing, writing detailed field notes, and patience” (Kawulich, 2005). A collaborative ethnographic approach further underpinned the study. This approach introduced slight methodological variations across the six national case studies, as participants were given agency to shape research processes. While this adaptability ensured respect and inclusivity for participants, it also introduced differences in specific methodologies across groups. However, the foundational theoretical and methodological framework remained consistent across contexts, ensuring comparability of findings. Despite these methodological nuances, the data collected across the six national studies converged in illuminating how arts and sports activities, as shared interests, can challenge notions of otherness and mitigate feelings of exclusion. The study demonstrated that everyday social interactions at the micro level, particularly during sports and arts activities, disrupt processes of radicalization by generating a non-binary sense of belonging that goes beyond the identities of partakers of these activities.

Fractured sense of belonging – the wayward

Our data showed how fractured sense of belonging triggers similar feelings in people regardless of their ethnic, national, gender or religious backgrounds. The collected data contains interviews with three different groups from Italy, Poland, the United Kingdom, Serbia, Slovenia and Israel. The research teams in each country decided which group to work with themselves. Research participants both in Poland and the United Kingdom shared the main characteristics with the majority population such as race, ethnicity, and religion of their countries. In Poland, our data was gathered from football fans that were perceived as hooligans by the wider society. In the United Kingdom, interviews involved people who come from disadvantaged backgrounds and who have suffered or already suffering from drug or alcohol addiction. Both in Polish and the UK data, the majority of the interviewees neither had migrant or minority backgrounds nor racial differences, and none of them identified themselves as transgender, gay or non-binary as all these features are among the major exclusion drivers for the wider societies. In contrast, interviewees in Italy, Serbia, Slovenia, and Israel have either migrant or ethnic minority backgrounds while in Israel and Serbia they were single-gender groups. We assume their fractured sense of belonging with the rest of the society to be more acute and deeply felt than the others in Italy, Serbia, and Slovenia. This suggests that while fractured belonging manifests across backgrounds, it may be compounded for individuals with visible markers of difference—such as race, ethnicity, or migrant status—whose exclusion is often amplified by systemic or cultural biases. In Israel, this was the case for women of Arab background. However, our presumption is that all our research participants were prone to appear as the wayward others for the wider society insomuch as they fell out of the expected ways of living. As a result, conceptually, we can assume that they can become prone to seeing the other as foes insomuch as their sense of belonging has been thwarted. This could lead to grievance, alienation, and polarisation as the self feels excluded from the rest of the society.

Empirical discussion

Marginalised while belong to the majority

A thwarted sense of belonging became particularly apparent in Poland and the UK interviews. In both cases, participants largely shared the ethnic, national, and religious backgrounds of the majority population. However, despite these identity alignments, they experienced strong social stigma due to their perceived deviance from normative ways of living—through associations with football hooliganism or substance addiction. This illustrates how exclusion is not always rooted in ethnic or migrant status, but can arise from moral, behavioural, or class-based judgments within the majority. The data in Poland was collected through semi-structured interviews with ‘Więczny Raków’ – a football fans association of club Raków Częstochowa. In these interviews, football fans underlined the significance of stereotypes when it comes to attitudes or perceptions of the wider society towards them. In their explanation, politics and the media have had undeniable impacts on the creation of a football fan image named under hooliganism in society. This dynamic must be situated within Poland’s broader political discourse, where football fan culture has long been intertwined with nationalist imagery and securitised by both state and media. Government campaigns against “hooliganism” and the association of ultras with far-right movements have shaped public perceptions, often rendering fans suspicious in the eyes of authorities. Thus, the fractured belonging expressed by our participants is not merely interpersonal but reflects a wider national narrative that frames them as threats to social order. These stereotypes developed into their fractured sense of belonging, on the one hand, and their feeling of exclusion, on the other. Therefore, the fans in Poland stated that they are interested in politics as far as politics is interested in them, and they believed that politics was very interested in them.

That’s probably what […] was talking about, yes, those stereotypes. When we are stereotypically perceived as a group, you still feel certain... at least I have this feeling that I am outside this society so that society somewhere at a given moment... will judge a hooligan or something somewhere someone something mutters under his breath. Well, I don't feel connected to that person – PL1

Here too, participants negotiated belonging in complex ways. While stereotypes of “hooliganism” pushed them outside the moral community, group activities like collective banner-painting created opportunities to display alternative identities as supportive fans and creative collaborators. When disagreements emerged within the group for example, around politics or rivalries, their shared art project (creation of a banner) offered a buffer, encouraging them to emphasise commonality rather than division. Some fans reported feeling a stronger sense of connection even after matches, suggesting that the bonds forged in these spaces sometimes carried over into everyday life. Others, however, acknowledged that solidarity largely remained situational, dissolving once the specific activity ended.

The UK data was collected through semi-structured interviews as well with the participants of the Street Soccer Scotland – an NGO that uses football-inspired training and personal development as a medium to empower people that are affected by social exclusion or disadvantage. When it comes to stereotyping, interviewees in the United Kingdom showed feelings similar to those of the research participants in Poland. Even though their feelings of exclusion had different origins, their reflections on exclusion showed similar insights into understanding the value of non-binary situationalities. In the way they talked about their exclusion, we have seen how a stigma about their group has overridden their individual grievances and outcasted them.

I’d probably say like, a lot of people kind of look down on you, as if your, like you’re a no good, you’re trouble, stuff like that, em, your kind of going nowhere in life. Em, and they don’t really understand like your troubles or whatever. So, you’re kind of labelled. There’s a stigma attached when people have been through maybe addiction, homelessness, there’s a bad stigma attached to that. – UK1

These experiences cannot be separated from the UK’s socio-political context. Welfare retrenchment and austerity policies have intensified the stigmatization of addiction and homelessness, particularly in Scotland, framing them as individual failings rather than systemic outcomes. Simultaneously, discourses around “antisocial behaviour” have securitised poverty, casting disadvantaged groups as risks to public safety. Against this backdrop, football programmes like Street Soccer Scotland not only offer belonging but also resist dominant narratives that criminalise social marginality.

These reflections reveal not only the stigma itself but also how participants actively negotiated their identities in response to it. Several described how participation in Street Soccer allowed them to “rewrite” the narratives attached to addiction or homelessness by demonstrating reliability, teamwork, and creativity. Conflicts sometimes arose—for example, when one participant relapsed or missed training, but these tensions were managed within the group by emphasising mutual support over judgement. Importantly, participants stressed that the friendships built in this space were not always confined to the football pitch: some extended into housing arrangements, job searches, or ongoing mutual aid. Yet, durability was uneven. While some bonds persisted beyond the activity, others faded once the structured support of the NGO ended, underlining both the promise and fragility of non-binary belonging.

Both in Polish and the UK cases we also observed the fact that the social exclusion of such people has led to their securitization by the wider society. Participants of our research occasionally raised that when they manifested themselves in social environments, they were perceived as a potential threat by the wider society. Relatedly, participants in the Polish and the UK cases also underlined the differences in the attitudes of security officials towards them in comparison with the rest of the society. Yet, their non-binary situationalities increased their resilience and wider belonging.

Outcasted while minority

While the participants in Poland and the UK reflected exclusion despite aligning with majority identity traits, our data from Italy reveals how exclusion is experienced when ethnicity becomes a visible axis of differentiation. In parallel to the examples above from the UK and Poland, our research participants from Italy reflected on how the existing stereotypes triggered certain expectations from the majority. Two of them underlined how they were profiled as potential criminals because of their ethnicity and emphasized that being put in this “group” was not of their own choosing but was nevertheless “reality.” One of the participants reflected on how, ironically, acting against a particular stereotype can produce a greater sense of estrangement than acting in accordance with that stereotype due their acting in a manner that surprises both the “in” and the “out” group results in a feeling of being totally isolated. These examples highlight that stereotyping and being placed into social groups by others can often produce a feeling that one is “alien” within one’s own society. An interviewee stated this situation as follows: “when you’re trying to do the right thing, you’ve been seen as a stranger” – IT1.

These accounts resonate with national debates in Italy, where migration has been framed through the language of security and criminality, particularly in policy responses to Mediterranean crossings. Participants’ experiences of being profiled as “potential criminals” reflect not only everyday prejudice, but also the institutionalisation of suspicion through policing and immigration regimes. Thus, exclusion in this case is embedded in a political context that legitimises ethnic stereotyping as part of migration management.

Feelings of exclusion can pave the way to radicalisation and, as we argued above, fractured sense of belonging, regardless of its origin, makes individuals vulnerable to radical ideologies. This argument is grounded in our own empirical findings, where participants—especially in Italy and the UK—explicitly linked their experiences of stigma and social isolation to feelings of estrangement from wider society. The above example from Italy shows that feelings of being stigmatized were enough to make someone feel excluded from the wider society. In such cases, individuals struggle to make meaningful interactions with the wider society and alienate themselves from the rest. This connection between social exclusion and susceptibility to radicalisation is well-documented in the literature (Kundnani, 2015; Schmid, 2013), which emphasises how isolation, perceived injustice, and lack of belonging can increase receptivity to extremist ideologies. Radicalisation is often conceptualised as a multi-level process involving individual, group, and societal dynamics (McCauley and Moskalenko, 2008; Neumann, 2013). While some models emphasise cognitive or identity shifts at the individual level, others highlight the role of social networks, online communities, and structural grievances. In this article, we foreground the individual-level experience of fractured belonging as an entry point but situate it within broader processes of exclusion and marginalisation. As discussed, radicalisation is a process that occurs at the individual level, that is, when individuals start to isolate themselves from the wider society, they also start encapsulating their social relations in small bubbles. In such bubbles, feelings of exclusion, discrimination or alienation can easily be abused by radical ideologies. The stereotypes that our research participants mentioned are the outcomes of expectations of societies from particular groups to fit into binary categories of sense of belonging. In the cases above, the participants stated that wider society expected specific set of actions from them and mostly linked their expectations to binary identity readings. Due to these stereotypes wider society has limited social interaction between the self and the other, where otherwise what makes stereotypes pervasive may potentially be falsified. When binary expectations set the ground for social interactions between members of different groups, it becomes harder to break the stereotype. It even generates estrangement when a person acts against a particular stereotype. That is when regardless of belonging to majority or minority, someone could appear as the wayward other.

Shared experiences in non-binary situations of sense of belonging

While macro-level factors, such as stereotypes, significantly limit social interactions between members of different groups, certain micro-environments provide opportunities to challenge societal fragmentations. As we discussed above, we define such environments as non-binary due to their capacity to foster a sense of belonging that surpasses binary identity situations. These microenvironments can result from the absence of a dominant culture tied to specific identity situation and they allow individuals to develop a sense of belonging that transcends binary distinctions. We propose non-binary situations as those providing inclusive sense of belonging as evinced by our empirical data. Below, we present examples of how arts and sports activities generate non-binary social situations in United Kingdom, Serbia, Poland, Slovenia and Israel and will discuss the importance of promoting such environments in deradicalisation approaches.

Our environment [football] is a general cross-section of the whole society. Because it really is... There might be some... mmm... standing next to you, was it a respectable businessman, owner of some enterprise, or some street thug, right? – PL2

A doctor, or without ... homeless, maybe I exaggerated, but a doctor and a production worker can stand next to each other and they will find a common language together – PL3

I’m the same, I, I felt it really welcoming, and eh… a lot … eh… lot of people altogether when you come, and it gives you new relationships friendships that you build up and these can be friendships for life and maybe you might not have had these friendships- UK2

Hence, we propose the importance of bolstering non-binary situations for deradicalisation to offer social interaction opportunities to those that gather around a common interest. These are also the spaces that cater for more inclusive belongingness with their central tenets being inter-subjectivity, togetherness, and collective understanding creation. Such situations offer intimate experiences which can cross-cut binary identities such as nationality or ethnicity. That is why the D. Rad project has focused on arts and sports as intervention media. Relatedly, reflections of the research participants of the D. Rad project showed how those spaces where people find like-minded others influence their feelings of inclusion as well. They underlined the fact that environments can tackle social isolation or exclusion by bringing people from different socio-cultural backgrounds around shared interests.

Some will continue to approach stereotypically, as X said here at the beginning, while the part that has already had the opportunity to get to know us, and do something with us, has a completely different approach. – PL2

Kind of… Like kind of breaks down the, like the kind of isolation that you’ve had like within, like the outside world as well. Like you can isolate yourself and keep yourself away from the world. But coming down here it’s just like coming down to visit like your wee Granny or whatever. Everybody knows each other, there’s no judgement or anything like that. UK3

As we mentioned above, the data from the UK and Poland involves people that share the main characteristics of the majority population of their countries. Our specific intervention in Poland was making the football hooligans paint a placard together to present themselves to the wider society as not necessarily a threat but as convivial mates. In UK, the participants wrote poetry to express themselves using artistic media to trump their personification as the wayward other for the rest of the society. Therefore, these two cases show that the people belonging to majority populations may also appear as the stigmatised.

Extending this lens to groups with more visible markers of otherness, our Serbian case focuses on refugee youth whose marginalisation is closely tied to their migration background. We intervened when the minority and migrant populations were the wayward other by using arts and sports interventions to boost convivial experiences as well to bolster their sense of belonging. To this extent, in Serbia, we organised activities with refugees in Belgrade. Young refugees joined a weekly programme called the ‘Boys’ Day’ (BD) to prepare them for building relationships and peaceful co-existence with other so that they could manage being outcasts for the wider society and marginalized as a possible result. Interviewees in Serbia repeatedly suggested that friendships were the most important part of their activities. One of the participants (SB1), for example, stressed how important it was for them to spend time with and play football with other boys of a similar age that are in similar positions. When asked if they would have been friends with these boys otherwise, the same participant responded negatively. Many of them lived in different parts of Belgrade and the BD helped them to meet other boys in safe and neutral situations. Further, they stated that through playing football in a team with participants with different backgrounds, they learned how to respect other cultures. Additionally, same interviewee explained that the opportunity to share one’s own thoughts and experiences on a particular topic during their gatherings enabled participants to ‘learn about five cultures in 1 day’. This value of these situations to set up non-binary sense of belonging became more manifest when they involved the wider society to their activities. In Serbia, these dynamics unfolded against the backdrop of restrictive refugee policies and nationalist political discourses that often portrayed migrants as outsiders to the national community. Youth participants’ reliance on Boys’ Day activities to build trust highlights how non-binary belonging emerged despite a hostile macro-environment. Their reflections on acceptance therefore illustrate not only interpersonal solidarity but also a form of quiet resistance to exclusionary state narratives.

Two other research participants (SB2; SB3) stated that weekly events helped them to enlarge their encounters beyond their immediate social circles. SB2 stated that the favourite part of the BD was sitting and eating together whilst ‘talking about life’ as it ‘feel[s] great when we are together’. Additionally, some interviewees claimed that sports activities helped them to make further connections. SB3 explained in the football games, it was common for other Serbian children and teenagers to join their matches. SB3 reflected on how keen the Serbian young people were to keep playing with the BD participants each week, which led to friendships being formed among members of the two groups breaking binaries between self and other otherwise. Furthermore, as we do not consider migrants as a single group either and recognise their internal differences, we note social interactions built around shared interests among migrants with different backgrounds as important to bolster non-binary sense of belonging. As we stated above, radicalisation starts with a sense of being excluded, later segueing into grievance, alienation and polarisation, non-binary sense of belonging cuts across identity dichotomies by foregrounding situationalities. In other words, any situation that helps to break the sense of exclusion, regardless of the origins of its partakers, would build non-binary sense of belonging. Relatedly, we see that when a situation is not pre-defined as belonging to a particular way of living, then it can become an attraction for the members of wider society as well. Hence, typically dichotomised groups with binary beloning can gather around shared interests and generate a non-binary sense of belonging. One can then see how such interests can function as a tool to bring people from different backgrounds, allowing us to interpret their enjoyment as a booster for one’s sense of non-binary belonging regardless of their manifest identities.

The Serbian case particularly illuminated how belonging was actively sustained amidst potential conflict. Refugee youth often arrived with different languages, religions, and cultural practices, which initially created mistrust. Yet, football offered a low-stakes arena in which disagreements over rules, fairness, or competition were negotiated collectively. Participants reported learning “respect” through these disputes, reframing conflict as an opportunity to practice coexistence. Friendships did not always extend outside Boys’ Day, but those that did were described as vital to coping with hostile encounters in schools or neighbourhoods. Thus, the bonds were situational yet carried the potential to generate more durable cross-cultural solidarities.

While the Serbian case highlights how sport facilitated cross-cultural bonding, the Slovenian case reveals how artistic collaboration similarly helped migrant youth find common ground and forge deep connections. The data in Slovenia has included interviews with Street Theatre (ST) and Creative Dance and Movement (CDM) participant, showing how activities in these two artistic fields promoted and sustained social inclusion among young people in the Ljubljana region. Particularly, participation in CDM activities forged a strong bond amongst research participants with mixed ethnic origins or being migrants – the typical wayward others for the wider society. They explored their shared experiences of prejudice and injustice during art activities noting how these strengthened their bonds with each other. The participants also prompted us to create a messaging group named “Multinational sisters”. These dynamics should also be understood within the Slovenian context, where debates over migration have become increasingly politicised since the 2015 “refugee crisis.” Policy shifts towards stricter border control and integration requirements have framed migrant youth as temporary outsiders. Against this backdrop, artistic collaboration offered participants an alternative narrative: one in which shared creativity and mutual learning trumped exclusionary national categories. In this case, their experiences with migration cross-cut different types of identifications otherwise and become facilitators of their forthcoming intimate relationships. Moving from that, connections extended beyond ST activities incorporated informal conversations where they learnt each other’s languages and culture. Hence, participants explored similarities generated by migration as they expressed themselves to each other and deepened their relations through street theatre activities. Their experiences also strengthened their self-esteem and sense of belonging. Relatedly, two participants highlighted the importance of collective physical experience of creating, preparing, and performing in public. This experience was pivotal in fostering feelings of support and belonging to wider society. One of them described that it made them feel “supported” by each other so that “no one was scared” in the end. Another said “we became like a little family” where “everyone had a role”. The same one saw strength in the cooperation between group members during the performance and identified it as new learning for her as they usually performed solo. It became apparent that through ST activities participants also built intimacy with each other. One interviewee felt “acceptance and love from the participants” throughout the activities in the exchange. In all these expressions, we see particular feelings had been attached to their sense of belonging. Relatedly, a sense of security, understanding, acceptance, and participation in collective efforts are feelings that positively influence one’s sense of belonging.

To further broaden our understanding of non-binary belonging across gendered and cultural lines, the Israeli case offers insights into how shared activity—here, a women’s netball league—can foster solidarity across religious, ethnic, and social divides. In Israel, we examined a major netball league named “Mamanet” (association for Mothers). This association was founded in 2005. It was developed and operated by women. Within their local communities, the Mamanet netball network vied to attract mothers of school students (elementary, middle and high schools) to participate in weekly trainings. Each group held 12 mothers connecting through their children’s schools. Each mother plays with a shirt bearing the name of her children’s school while the teams compete against each other within a municipal league. Each team has a captain - ultimately empowering female leadership as well. Mamanet operates in different geographic areas in Israel and recruits women in peripheral regions with limited access to sports facilities from varying demographic communities e.g., ultra-Orthodox women, women from Arab communities with patriarchal traditions, women in prisons. Hence, had it not been for the situations generated by sports, these women would not have mixed with each other otherwise. They had different family statuses (single, divorced, single parents, co-parenting), diverse personal backgrounds (religious, secular, LGBTQ+) and age differences. During the interviews, the participants said that sports mattered for them personally, emphasising improved physical abilities, mental strength, and self-esteem. It is clear that being exposed to diversity whilst doing sports mattered for the participants. Their non-binary sense of belonging derived from shared experience with sports trumping the similarity that their binary gender identity would have comported and parleyed. However, participants’ engagement with these shared spaces was not uniform; for some, especially those with marginalised ethnic or migrant identities, initial barriers such as mistrust or prior discrimination had to be overcome before fully accessing the benefits of non-binary belonging. Being part of Mamanet also waged a broad social importance for participants as they met others coming from all walks of life. Some participants claimed they built new friendships and these newly generated intimate connections have evolved into family-like attributes with mutual trust. Sports was thereby perceived by players as a refuge or a space – disconnecting them from the daily routine that they would habituate merely as women and allowing release of tensions.

The importance of Mamanet must be read in relation to Israel’s broader political divisions across religion, ethnicity, and gender. Sports leagues are not immune to these divides; indeed, they often reproduce them. Yet, Mamanet’s deliberate inclusion of Arab women, ultra-Orthodox women, and women from peripheral communities challenges prevailing narratives that confine these groups to separate social spheres. In this way, the league’s impact extends beyond the personal: it disrupts entrenched national discourses of separation by foregrounding shared situational belonging. Importantly, participants also noted frictions in these spaces. For example, cultural differences around modesty or religious observance occasionally produced tension during matches or team gatherings. Rather than fracturing the group, however, these conflicts became occasions for dialogue: women described negotiating compromises, such as adjusting uniforms or respecting prayer times, that allowed everyone to participate. Several participants emphasised that these negotiations deepened their sense of mutual recognition, turning potential exclusions into shared problem-solving. Friendships that began on the court often extended into childcare networks, business collaborations, or activism, indicating that in some cases, the bonds outlasted the sports setting itself.

Conclusion

This paper has explored the potential of a non-binary framework to address fractured senses of belonging, aiming to reduce polarization and prevent radicalization. By shifting the focus from rigid, identity-based dichotomies to situational and fluid understandings of belonging, we have illuminated pathways toward fostering inclusivity and cohesion in diverse societies. Our findings underscore the critical role of arts and sports in creating non-binary environments where participants can transcend societal stereotypes and identity-based divisions. The empirical data collected during the D. Rad project highlights how shared activities promote a sense of belonging across varied socio-cultural contexts. In Poland, football fans stigmatized as “hooligans” used participatory art to challenge stereotypes, while in the UK, stigmatised individuals found solidarity through poetry and team sports. Similarly, refugees in Serbia formed cross-cultural connections through football, and migrants in Slovenia fostered their sense of belonging via creative dance and theatre.

These case studies demonstrate the tangible benefits of shared spaces in mitigating alienation, discrimination, and marginalization. For instance, the Polish football fans reflected on how stereotypes fostered feelings of exclusion, while participants in the UK noted how stigmatization hindered their ability to engage meaningfully with broader society. Both groups emphasized the transformative power of inclusive activities in rebuilding fractured belonging. In Serbia, football served as a platform for young refugees to establish friendships beyond their immediate circles, fostering mutual respect and understanding. Meanwhile, Slovenian participants described how collective artistic efforts strengthened their bonds, challenging societal fragmentations.

These examples illustrate that non-binary environments—where shared interests replace binary identity constructs—enable individuals to experience a sense of belonging that transcends divisions. Such spaces provide opportunities for meaningful interaction, fostering collective understanding and dismantling harmful stereotypes. By addressing the root causes of exclusion and polarization, they create fertile ground for deradicalization and the cultivation of harmonious, inclusive communities. In conclusion, the non-binary approach offers a robust framework for understanding and fostering belonging in diverse societies. It emphasizes shared experiences over fixed identities, challenging traditional constructs that perpetuate division. As this study demonstrates, participatory arts and sports activities serve as powerful tools for creating inclusive environments where fractured belonging can be repaired. By embracing such approaches, societies can better navigate the complexities of diversity, fostering cohesion and resilience against radicalization. Ultimately, building non-binary belonging is not merely a preventative measure against polarization but a proactive strategy for cultivating inclusive and dynamic communities. Although our non-binary framework emphasizes shared situationality, future work might further explore how diverse personal backgrounds modulate access to, or experience within, such shared spaces.

At the same time, our data remind us that non-binary belonging is always shaped by the broader structural realities of race, gender, migration, and national politics. These categories do not disappear in shared spaces; rather, they condition who enters, how conflicts are managed, and whether bonds endure. Acknowledging these intersections strengthens our framework by recognising that situational belonging can coexist with—and sometimes contest—deeply entrenched inequalities.