Urban Diversity and Spatial Justice: A Critical Overview (original) (raw)
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Economy or Justice? How Urban Actors Respond to Diversity
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The diversification of population, demands for recognition, and the spread of diversity policies present new challenges to European cities. Do urban actors respond to this development in different ways across cities? Can we distinguish a logic determined by economic considerations or rather a justice-oriented logic? This article presents evidence from 20 German cities based on an original survey of important urban actors. This design reflects current realities of urban governance. Results indicate that, across Germany’s biggest cities, there is a normative consensus over the benefits of diversity. However, other positions are controversial and views seem partly incoherent. Cities neither clearly position themselves as pro- or antidiversity cities nor do most of them adopt clear market-oriented or justice-oriented approaches. We conclude that, in a relatively new field, positions are still uncrystallized, and hybrid combinations of perspectives may remain typical in societies with st...
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European Urban and Regional Studies, 2012
This introduction to the special issue ‘Diversity, inequality and urban change’ provides a brief historical overview of assimilative, politico-economic and multicultural approaches in the USA and Europe. It focuses on representations of diversity in cities and highlights processes of theory transference, which are often silenced in debates about city paradigms. It draws attention to how the cities discussed in the special issue (London, Berlin and southern European cities) can contribute to the relational framing of the migration experience and multicultural life.
2016
The first aim of WP8 on cross-evaluation is to identify what policy-makers and civil society representatives active on different levels (Europe, national, urban, neighbourhood) and working in often very different contexts can learn from the research results of the DIVERCITIES project on urban diversities. The second aim is to allow policy-makers and civil society representatives to update our discussions on the governance of urban diversity. The third aim is to create a forum for policy-makers and civil society representatives from various countries and cities to exchange and share information on governing urban diversity among each other. It is set up as a dialogue between DIVERCITIES scholars and policy-makers, civil society representatives and experts from all case study countries. The cross-evaluation has discussed the governance and policy implications of the research findings across all case studies of the DIVERCITIES project and the extent to which the DIVERCITIES research fi...
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This policy brief describes the governance and policy implications of the large-scale DIVERCITIES research project on urban diversity in 14 cities in Europe and beyond. It is based on a mutual learning exercise between academics, policymakers and civil society representatives and a comparative reading of the research results for the 14 cities. How can urban policies and actions improve social cohesion, neighbourhood attachment and everyday life in diverse and disadvantaged neighbourhoods? What needs to change in the discourses, perceptions and approaches of diversity amongst policymakers and civil society actors in order to govern urban diversity in a more productive way? How can the potential of diversity for promoting social mobility, economic performance and entrepreneurship be enhanced? In this policy brief we show that a plurality of tailor-made policy arrangements and actions is required to turn diversity into an advantage for neighbourhoods. These arrangements and actions aim...
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Executive Summary: Today, cities in Europe are more diverse than ever. Immigration, socio-economic inequality, and spatial segregation, coupled with a diversity of identities, activities, mobility’s, and lifestyles all contribute to a condition we call hyper-diversity. The accumulation of these factors in urban settings poses signi cant challenges to policy-makers and institutions. On the one hand, there are positive discourses on urban diversity. The European Union sees diversity as a driver of growth and social progress. Many city authorities are inspired by Richard Florida’s work and see diversity as an asset that can attract the creative class. On the other hand, increasing diversity engenders fear among substantial parts of the population. The election of Trump, the impending Brexit, and the rise of populist movements across Europe are all related to anxiety about immigration. Many national governments have reacted by enforcing stricter immigration policies and adopting an assi...
Tactical Cosmopolitanism as Urban Negotiation: Diversity-Management ‘From Beside.’
Urban Emplacement: Transversal Solidarities and Politics of Possibility, 2022
The concepts of immigrant integration, transnationalism, and the nature of urban publics remain at the center of popular and political debate across much of the western world. Although such concerns have been less evident in discussions of African cities and mobilities, increased interest in mobility within the global south is drawing additional attention to the urban spaces serving as destination and stations for migrants on the African continent. This raises fundamental questions about the actors, process, ethics and scales associated with urban becoming and community making. The social heterogeneity and translocality of such spaces are fertile grounds for social experimentation drawing on variegated histories and moral systems. Amidst these transforming and emergent urban spaces, this chapter identifies a form of ’tactical cosmopolitan’ that outsiders develop through interactions with potentially inhospitable people and places. Unable – or uninterested – in addressing sources of structural exclusion, this discursive mechanism reflects a kind of usufruct ethics: a means of establishing rights to space aimed at achieving protection and benefit without communal membership or community cohesion. Rather than a coherent philosophy, this is a form of ‘cosmopolitanism from below,’ an amalgam of rhetorical and organizational tools chosen magpie- like from more established discourses and value systems. It is a kind of ‘thin’ cosmopolitanism that instrumentalizes rather than commits to its power and universalist duties.
Urban Diversity under the Microscope, Ashraf M. Salama, 2013
B’Here Annual Review-Qatar 2013, 2013
Salama, A. M. (2013). Urban Diversity Under the Microscope: A Brief Examination of Public Open Spaces in the City of Doha. B’Here Annual Review-Qatar 2013, Arab Communication Consult, Beirut, Lebanon, PP.126-129. _________________________________________ With their socio-physical, socio-economic, socio-cultural, and socio-political presence, cities have always been highly differentiated spaces expressive of heterogeneity, diversity of activities, entertainment, excitement and pleasure. They have been - and still are - melting pots for the formulation of and experimentation with new philosophies and religious and social practices. They produce, reproduce, represent, and convey much of what counts today as culture, knowledge, and politics. This article presents a brief examination of public open spaces, Doha, Qatar.