Policy Press
5 Nurturing solidarity in diversity: Can local currencies enable transformative practices?
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Abstract
This chapter analyses the relationship between super-diversity and solidarity, considering the potential of solidarity in diversity based on an extensive case study in Rabot-Blaisantvest — a super-diverse and poor neighbourhood in Ghent. It assesses if and how the introduction of a local currency system in an impoverished and super-diverse neighbourhood in the Belgian city of Ghent stimulates interpersonal practices of solidarity in diversity. The local currency triggered new activities and stimulated a more diverse group of inhabitants to participate, thus strengthening interdependency in the neighbourhood and generating new forms of solidarity, especially between residents in similar economically disadvantaged positions. Some of these new forms of solidarity in diversity have a transformative effect, that is, they question existing and normalised social structures and relationships.
Abstract
This chapter analyses the relationship between super-diversity and solidarity, considering the potential of solidarity in diversity based on an extensive case study in Rabot-Blaisantvest — a super-diverse and poor neighbourhood in Ghent. It assesses if and how the introduction of a local currency system in an impoverished and super-diverse neighbourhood in the Belgian city of Ghent stimulates interpersonal practices of solidarity in diversity. The local currency triggered new activities and stimulated a more diverse group of inhabitants to participate, thus strengthening interdependency in the neighbourhood and generating new forms of solidarity, especially between residents in similar economically disadvantaged positions. Some of these new forms of solidarity in diversity have a transformative effect, that is, they question existing and normalised social structures and relationships.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of tables and figures vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- Acknowledgements xiv
- Introduction: Understanding super-diversity in deprived and mixed neighbourhoods 1
- Who are the strangers? Neighbour relations in socially and ethnically heterogeneous residential buildings in Geneva 25
- Experiencing diversity in London: Social relations in a rapidly changing neighbourhood 47
- ‘Others’ in diversified neighbourhoods: What does social cohesion mean in diversified neighbourhoods? A case study in Istanbul 69
- Nurturing solidarity in diversity: Can local currencies enable transformative practices? 89
- Interculturalism as conservative multiculturalism? New generations from an immigrant background in Milan, Italy, and the challenge to categories and boundaries 113
- Bringing inequality closer: A comparative outlook at socially diverse neighbourhoods in Chicago and Santiago de Chile 139
- Ambiguities of vertical multi-ethnic coexistence in the city of Athens: Living together but unequally between conflicts and encounters 165
- Beyond the middle classes: Neighbourhood choice and satisfaction in the hyper-diverse contexts 187
- Living with diversity or living with difference? International perspectives on everyday perceptions of the social composition of diverse neighbourhoods 211
- Conclusion: Super-diversity, conviviality, inequality 235
- Index 245
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of tables and figures vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- Acknowledgements xiv
- Introduction: Understanding super-diversity in deprived and mixed neighbourhoods 1
- Who are the strangers? Neighbour relations in socially and ethnically heterogeneous residential buildings in Geneva 25
- Experiencing diversity in London: Social relations in a rapidly changing neighbourhood 47
- ‘Others’ in diversified neighbourhoods: What does social cohesion mean in diversified neighbourhoods? A case study in Istanbul 69
- Nurturing solidarity in diversity: Can local currencies enable transformative practices? 89
- Interculturalism as conservative multiculturalism? New generations from an immigrant background in Milan, Italy, and the challenge to categories and boundaries 113
- Bringing inequality closer: A comparative outlook at socially diverse neighbourhoods in Chicago and Santiago de Chile 139
- Ambiguities of vertical multi-ethnic coexistence in the city of Athens: Living together but unequally between conflicts and encounters 165
- Beyond the middle classes: Neighbourhood choice and satisfaction in the hyper-diverse contexts 187
- Living with diversity or living with difference? International perspectives on everyday perceptions of the social composition of diverse neighbourhoods 211
- Conclusion: Super-diversity, conviviality, inequality 235
- Index 245
