Urban Intercultural Spaces and Movements: Synthesis Reports and Policy Recommendations

CLAUDIA PEDONE; SANDRA GIL ARAUJO; LUCÍA SOLAVAGIONE; BELÉN AGRELA ROMERO

Atenas

Seminario; 4rd Steering Committee Meeting, Proyecto Europeo GE.M.IC.??Gender, Migration and Intercultural Interactions in the Mediterranean and South East Europe: an interdisciplinary perspective? (FP7); 2010

Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences

Based on the case studies of Bologna, Athens and Barcelona, the purpose of this research is to analyze the role of urban public spaces in the creation of intercultural and social inclusion/exclusion relations. We focus in the use and appropriation of these spaces from a gender approach that considers specifically the migrant families experiences. Besides, we use the feminist concept of positionality to understand how the social situatedness of migrants conditioning their practices of citizenship (gender, ethnicity, education, immigration status, social class, age and generations, length of stay, and migration experiences). We propose the idea of citizenship as social practice that migrants engage at multiples scales and with multiples public spheres across national boundaries. From this point of view the urban spaces are a privileged place to understand migrant citizenships practices. We consider public spaces as privileged places of interaction and participation, and crucial to the formation of the identification processes and to the construction of citizenship. Public spaces are understood in a broad sense, that include those in the open air and those in premises, public and private, such as squares, streets, parks, commercial areas, cultural, health, entertainment equipments, etc.; in sum, public places of encounter and confrontation in the city. An specific area of study has been chosen considering its diversity in terms of the origin of the population. As people?s daily practices and experiences are very important to evaluate places and taking into account the social diversity and difference, the challenge is to see the different uses of these spaces and the access to the social rights linked at gender, age, social class and origin variables. Therefore, the research will be based on a qualitative methodological perspective from a gender approach. In order to study and research the public spaces, each national team decided on a specific neighbourhood: Bolognina in Bologna, Kypseli in Athens, Poble Sec in Barcelona, which share quite a few common characteristics. They are working-class neighbourhoods where on top of the domestic migrant waves they experienced in the middle of the XX Century, the international migrants are adding new perspectives to the interaction and participation in the borough. Nowadays, the three neighbourhoods have hight percentages of migrants population (Poble Sec, 28.1%, Kypseli, 21% and Bolognina 17%). In the last decades, the three have experienced a process of revitalization and gentrification, and they also have a very rich associative network.