Intercultural Cities

This book sets out to explore the political and social potential of intercultural policy for cities by bringing together advances in the areas of urban planning and intercultural theory. In recent years, demographic changes in cities in many parts of the world have led to increasing concerns about inter-ethnic tensions, social inequality, and racial discrimination. By virtue of their intermediate status, cities are in a particularly good position to design policy and programs that contribute to the well-being of all citizens, regardless of their origins. Certain cities have made significant advances in this domain, but until now very little work has been done to understand the specificity of work in the area of intercultural policy frameworks. The overall goal of this volume is to facilitate conversations between researchers and practitioners in their efforts to make cities more inclusive. This volume is the result of a series of on-going collaborations between academics and practitioners and it includes a number of original case studies that explain the evolution of intercultural policy from the point of view local actors. This collection will be of interest especially to policymakers and urban planners, but also to scholars and students in the areas of urban studies, public policy, anthropology, sociology, globalization and social sciences more generally. By leveraging recent advances in the field of intercultural policy and practice, this volume sheds light on the conditions and strategies that make intercultural cities a part of a common future.

Intercultural cities introduces a new model of local governance and policy in the age of diversity: the model of intercultural integration. This model has been built on the basis of experience in real-life cities and with their active participation. City-to-city mentoring and learning have played a key role in this process. This volume explains what intercultural integration means in practice: how it affects policies, governance and citizenship, public discourse, media relations, public services and the urban environment. It reviews the processes that facilitate the development of intercultural strategies and presents a wide range of examples, including the intercultural profiles of 11 cities across Europe. Intercultural integration adds another dimension to the management of culturally diverse populations, compared to previous models, in particular multiculturalism. In addition to non-discrimination, equal opportunities and cultural rights, interculturalism focuses on building trust and cohesion by encouraging interaction and mixing between cultural groups in the public realm and encouraging a positive discourse and attitude to diversity within the community.It also focuses on improving the efficiency of public services by making them more culturally sensitive and adapted to the needs of diverse users, and on the need for specific services such as those dealing with intercultural mediation and conflict prevention.

Cities are increasingly recognized as new players in diversity studies, and many of them are showing evidence of an intercultural shift. As an emerging concept and policy, interculturalism is becoming the most pragmatic answer to concrete concerns in c

Most countries in Europe and indeed around the world are facing the challenges of international migration and integration of minorities. It falls primarily upon cities to design and implement policies that foster community cohesion and turn cultural diversity into a factor of development rather than a threat.This guide is designed for city leaders and practitioners wishing to learn from the Intercultural Cities pilot project run by the Council of Europe and the European Commission in developing an intercultural approach to diversity management and integration. This approach has been built on the basis of experience in dozens of real-life cities in redesigning their policies and reshaping their governance to ensure equal opportunities and realise a diversity advantage.The guide recommends steps and measures to help develop an intercultural strategy and monitor its implementation. It illustrates the elements of such a strategy with analytical questions, suggestions and examples of practice in various European cities.It is expected that any city embarking on the Intercultural Cities agenda is a confident and competent entity that is able to creatively adapt the general concepts and actions contained in this guide to local circumstances.This guide is therefore not an instruction manual but rather an aide-memoire to support cities as they create their own trajectory.

Cities today are paradoxical. They are engines of innovation and opportunity, but they are also plagued by significant income inequality and segregation by ethnicity, race, and class. These inequalities and segregations are often reinforced by the urban built environment: the planning of space and the design of architecture. This condition threatens attainment of wider social and economic prosperity. In this innovative new study, Dean Saitta explores questions of urban sustainability by taking an intercultural, trans-historical approach to city planning. Saitta uses a largely untapped body of knowledge-the archaeology of cities in the ancient world-to generate ideas about how public space, housing, and civic architecture might be better designed to promote inclusion and community, while also making our cities more environmentally sustainable. By integrating this knowledge with knowledge generated by evolutionary studies and urban ethnography (including a detailed look at Denver, Colorado, one of America's most desirable and fastest growing 'destination cities' but one that is also experiencing significant spatial segregation and gentrification), Saitta's book offers an invaluable new perspective for urban studies scholars and urban planning professionals.

In a world of increasing mobility, how people of different cultures live together is a key issue of our age, especially for those responsible for planning and running cities. New thinking is needed on how diverse communities can cooperate in productive harmony instead of leading parallel or antagonistic lives. Policy is often dominated by mitigating the perceived negative effects of diversity, and little thought is given to how adiversity dividend or increased innovative capacity might be achieved. The Intercultural City, based on numerous case studies worldwide, analyses the links between urban change and cultural diversity. It draws on original research in the US, Europe, Australasia and the UK. It critiques past and current policy and introduces new conceptual frameworks. It provides significant and practical advice for readers, with new insights and tools for practitioners such as theintercultural lensindicators of opennessurban cultural literacy andten steps to an Intercultural City. Published with Comedia.

Providing training on intercultural competence to staff and officials at all levels of government will help member states to efficiently implement the Council of Europe intercultural integration model Intercultural competence is the set of knowledge, skills, understanding and attitudes which enables individuals and organisations to act in an interculturally competent way. It is not a single concept, but a wide range of competences which, when combined, allow for proactive action to secure a healthy intercultural environment. While intercultural competence is developed on an individual basis, organising intercultural competence training for decision makers, public officials and other relevant stakeholders enables the application of an intercultural lens to public policies and activities, promoting a more inclusive culture. This manual aims to support public authorities to design their own tailor-made training courses with a view to spreading the skills and competence necessary to implement the Council of Europe intercultural integration model in a coherent and multilevel manner. It contains a description of the main features of intercultural competence, followed by seven concepts that are key for the successful implementation of intercultural integration strategies by public authorities. It is split into two publications for ease of access. This is Part 1 of the manual. It outlines the core principles of the Council of Europe intercultural integration model, including information on real equality, valuing diversity, meaningful intercultural interaction and active citizenship and participation.

In a world of increasing mobility, how people of different cultures live together is a key issue of our age, especially for those responsible for planning and running cities. New thinking is needed on how diverse communities can cooperate in productive harmony instead of leading parallel or antagonistic lives. Policy is often dominated by mitigating the perceived negative effects of diversity, and little thought is given to how a ?diversity dividend? or increased innovative capacity might be achieved. The Intercultural City, based on numerous case studies worldwide, analyses the links between urban change and cultural diversity. It draws on original research in the US, Europe, Australasia and the UK. It critiques past and current policy and introduces new conceptual frameworks. It provides significant and practical advice for readers, with new insights and tools for practitioners such as the ?intercultural lens?, ?indicators of openness?, ?urban cultural literacy? and ?ten steps to an Intercultural City'. Published with Comedia.