Intercultural City : About The Project

THEMES

From Multicultural to Intercultural
The intercultural lens
Intercultural innovators
The need for new indicators

The project is exploring the connections between cultural diversity, innovation and thriving and prosperous urban communities, in the context of the economic, social and cultural dynamics of cities in the UK and around the world. In identifying theses connections, strategies to harness the potential of diverse communities and their innovation have been developed so as to provide tools for policymakers, planners and practitioners. The project went further by assisting participating cities to develop specific economic, social, cultural and planning policies and thereby become role models for others to follow.

From Multicultural to Intercultural
In the UK, Canada, Australia and several European countries, multiculturalism has been the policy orthodoxy within which legislation and values concerning diversity have been framed.

Multiculturalism sought to protect and celebrate diversity with minority languages, religions and cultural practices encouraged and rights and freedoms enshrined in legislation. Recently this approach has been called into question and, particularly in the UK, it is argued that it has encouraged the creation of culturally and spatially-distinct communities leading ‘parallel lives’ with the maintenance of difference becoming the very currency by which status is gained and resources allocated. It has increasingly been seen as outmoded and so, in order to protect aspects of its legacy of tolerance, new ideas are badly needed.

Interculturalism, in which the emphasis is on interaction and the exchange of ideas between different cultural groups, is the way out of this impasse. It goes beyond equal opportunities and respect for existing cultural differences to the pluralist transformation of public space, institutions and civic culture. It is also distinct from the current arguments made for integration and community cohesion in arguing a much more proactive engagement between cultures, including a preparedness to see conflict not only as an inevitable but a creative process. This implies mutual learning and joint growth and a process of acquiring, not only a set of basic facts and concepts about ‘the other’, but particular skills and competences which will enable one to interact functionally with anyone different from oneself regardless of their origins. This then implies the acquisition of an intercultural competence which, in a diverse society, becomes an important ability.

The intercultural lens
Cities can become more intercultural by taking a fresh look at what they do. This requires cultural literacy, the capacity to acquire, interpret and apply knowledge about cultures. Our behaviour and thought is informed by our culture, be this ethnic, organisational or professional. It therefore rests with the urban professions to interrogate their own assumptions and expectations as well as those of the community they are working with, all the time understanding that communication takes place within a context of cultural filters through which things are interpreted and understood. This entails engagement by any professional with a community exploring its history, cultural institutions and current cultural values, through its forms of artistic expression, skills, crafts, media of communication, oral history and memory. The process of engagement can thus become as much an experience of community bonding as a research tool.

We have subjected six aspects of local activity to re-evaluation through an intercultural lens:

• Public consultation and engagement
• Urban planning and development
• Business and entrepreneurship
• Schools and education
• The arts and creative industries
• Sport

The orthodox, multiculturalist, approach to public consultation assumes communities are defined by their ethnicity and consulted in isolation (i.e. ‘the African Caribbean community’, ‘the Asian community’, etc.) as if ethnicity is the only factor influencing the way in which people will lead their lives in the city. Identity, however, is far more complex. If more community engagement were conducted in ‘intercultural spaces’ and based on the premise of diverse groups attempting to address common issues of mutual interest then a great level of cross-cultural understanding and empathy would be achieved.

Or take city-making. Are the basic building blocks of the city the same when looked at through intercultural eyes? Think of street frontages, building heights, set backs, pavement widths, turning circles, the amount of windows and their size, materials, light, colour, water. Should architects and planners structure space to reflect different cultures as they might see and use spaces in varied ways? Or should open-ended spaces be created that others can adapt to? In a survey of residents in Lewisham and Bristol to identify popular intercultural spaces, the places mentioned with most frequency were not the highly designed or engineered public and corporate spaces but rather the mundane spaces of day-to-day exchange that people highlight, such as libraries, schools, colleges, youth centres, sports clubs, specific cinemas, the hair salon, the hospital, markets and community centres.

We have also considered entrepreneurs from different cultures to understand the specifically intercultural context of their success and found that the state of individual ‘in-betweenness’ leads them to innovate. Each builds on the social, economic and cultural strengths of their original community, but then departs from it and creates something that at times is alien, or in conflict with their own community. However, it is precisely this tension and this need to break with tradition that gives them strength and the impetus to expand into new ventures.

We have found that schools are fundamental to building an interculturally competent society. Creative pursuits such as drama, media and conflict resolution proved to be strong themes around which to build cultural literacy. Like education, sport and the arts can provide foci for intercultural engagement. Shared spaces in the arts can be created which are new to all cultures while team sports provide great potential for increased interaction between communities.

Go to THEMATIC STUDIES page

Intercultural innovators
A catalytic individual or group will often form the core of an intercultural initiative. Our study of thirty-three such people in six English cities identified common characteristics. They fell into three broad types: artists and animateurs, those involved in community development including local politicians, and entrepreneurs. They found it easier than most to cross cultural boundaries, drawing upon elements from different cultures. The consequence was that they were adept at seeing their own culture as either relative or composite, and at valuing the different ways of seeing and doing things in the other cultures. This openness gives them a heightened propensity to select and absorb elements of other cultures and producing new ways of thinking, seeing, imagining and creating.

Many of these intercultural innovators, especially those of mixed race, often reported difficulties relating to racism and rejection growing up, but this seemed to have translated into heightened motivation and resilience. Unorthodox educations were also common, while social and cultural capital was often built outside formal settings. They often described themselves as outsiders, mavericks, rebels and on the margins.

Cities can nurture intercultural innovation by recognising diversity and drawing on the skills and aptitudes therein. They also need to eliminate racism and institutional lethargy and provide favourable funding and resource conditions. Innovators can be awkward, so cities cannot shy away from difficult-to-resolve issues.

DOWNLOAD SUMMARY REPORT

The need for new indicators
Currently available data can describe the ethnic make-up of a community but little of their degree of interaction or co-operation. Our study presents an isolation index of 78 English borough which is a quantitative measure of the likelihood of a person living next door to someone from a different background. However, further indicators are clearly needed to answer questions of how easily and frequently different ethnicities mix, how open a city is in terms of the institutional framework, business, civil society and public space, and extent of intercultural co-operation and collaboration.

These questions can be at least partially answered by measures of, for example, intermarriage, multilingualism and crossover networks, whilst documentary indicators, such as the existence of a Cultural Diversity or Intercultural strategy, are telling.

To explore openness and interculturalism at an urban level, and test the assumptions of the indicators they devised, we undertook a case study in Bristol, interviewing active or prominent people from a wide social spectrum. Among the findings were that among younger people, especially second and third generation immigrants, day-to-day involvements from work to play mitigate against segregation. Also, the creative industries and arts sectors are significant arenas where mixing occurs. The main conclusion, however, is that even though a city may not outwardly display any signs of ethnic tension or antipathy, a passive state of ‘benign indifference’ is currently the UK default position and this is neither sufficient nor desirable if society is to make the most of diversity.

Further work on developing practical indicators of openness and intercultural engagement will be one of the major strands of the projects over the next year.





		THEMES From Multicultural to Intercultural The intercultural lens Intercultural innovators The need for new indicators The project is exploring the connections between cultural diversity, innovation and thriving and prosperous urban communities, in the context of the economic, social and cultural dynamics of cities in the UK and around the world. In identifying theses connections, strategies to harness the potential of diverse communities and their innovation have been developed so as to provide tools for policymakers, planners and practitioners. The project went further by assisting participating cities to develop specific economic, social, cultural and planning policies and thereby become role models for others to follow. From Multicultural to Intercultural In the UK, Canada, Australia and several European countries, multiculturalism has been the policy orthodoxy within which legislation and values concerning diversity have been framed. Multiculturalism sought to protect and celebrate diversity with minority languages, religions and cultural practices encouraged and rights and freedoms enshrined in legislation. Recently this approach has been called into question and, particularly in the UK, it is argued that it has encouraged the creation of culturally and spatially-distinct communities leading ‘parallel lives’ with the maintenance of difference becoming the very currency by which status is gained and resources allocated. It has increasingly been seen as outmoded and so, in order to protect aspects of its legacy of tolerance, new ideas are badly needed. Interculturalism, in which the emphasis is on interaction and the exchange of ideas between different cultural groups, is the way out of this impasse. It goes beyond equal opportunities and respect for existing cultural differences to the pluralist transformation of public space, institutions and civic culture. It is also distinct from the current arguments made for integration and community cohesion in arguing a much more proactive engagement between cultures, including a preparedness to see conflict not only as an inevitable but a creative process. This implies mutual learning and joint growth and a process of acquiring, not only a set of basic facts and concepts about ‘the other’, but particular skills and competences which will enable one to interact functionally with anyone different from oneself regardless of their origins. This then implies the acquisition of an intercultural competence which, in a diverse society, becomes an important ability. The intercultural lens Cities can become more intercultural by taking a fresh look at what they do. This requires cultural literacy, the capacity to acquire, interpret and apply knowledge about cultures. Our behaviour and thought is informed by our culture, be this ethnic, organisational or professional. It therefore rests with the urban professions to interrogate their own assumptions and expectations as well as those of the community they are working with, all the time understanding that communication takes place within a context of cultural filters through which things are interpreted and understood. This entails engagement by any professional with a community exploring its history, cultural institutions and current cultural values, through its forms of artistic expression, skills, crafts, media of communication, oral history and memory. The process of engagement can thus become as much an experience of community bonding as a research tool. We have subjected six aspects of local activity to re-evaluation through an intercultural lens: • Public consultation and engagement • Urban planning and development • Business and entrepreneurship • Schools and education • The arts and creative industries • Sport The orthodox, multiculturalist, approach to public consultation assumes communities are defined by their ethnicity and consulted in isolation (i.e. ‘the African Caribbean community’, ‘the Asian community’, etc.) as if ethnicity is the only factor influencing the way in which people will lead their lives in the city. Identity, however, is far more complex. If more community engagement were conducted in ‘intercultural spaces’ and based on the premise of diverse groups attempting to address common issues of mutual interest then a great level of cross-cultural understanding and empathy would be achieved. Or take city-making. Are the basic building blocks of the city the same when looked at through intercultural eyes? Think of street frontages, building heights, set backs, pavement widths, turning circles, the amount of windows and their size, materials, light, colour, water. Should architects and planners structure space to reflect different cultures as they might see and use spaces in varied ways? Or should open-ended spaces be created that others can adapt to? In a survey of residents in Lewisham and Bristol to identify popular intercultural spaces, the places mentioned with most frequency were not the highly designed or engineered public and corporate spaces but rather the mundane spaces of day-to-day exchange that people highlight, such as libraries, schools, colleges, youth centres, sports clubs, specific cinemas, the hair salon, the hospital, markets and community centres. We have also considered entrepreneurs from different cultures to understand the specifically intercultural context of their success and found that the state of individual ‘in-betweenness’ leads them to innovate. Each builds on the social, economic and cultural strengths of their original community, but then departs from it and creates something that at times is alien, or in conflict with their own community. However, it is precisely this tension and this need to break with tradition that gives them strength and the impetus to expand into new ventures. We have found that schools are fundamental to building an interculturally competent society. Creative pursuits such as drama, media and conflict resolution proved to be strong themes around which to build cultural literacy. Like education, sport and the arts can provide foci for intercultural engagement. Shared spaces in the arts can be created which are new to all cultures while team sports provide great potential for increased interaction between communities. Go to THEMATIC STUDIES page Intercultural innovators A catalytic individual or group will often form the core of an intercultural initiative. Our study of thirty-three such people in six English cities identified common characteristics. They fell into three broad types: artists and animateurs, those involved in community development including local politicians, and entrepreneurs. They found it easier than most to cross cultural boundaries, drawing upon elements from different cultures. The consequence was that they were adept at seeing their own culture as either relative or composite, and at valuing the different ways of seeing and doing things in the other cultures. This openness gives them a heightened propensity to select and absorb elements of other cultures and producing new ways of thinking, seeing, imagining and creating. Many of these intercultural innovators, especially those of mixed race, often reported difficulties relating to racism and rejection growing up, but this seemed to have translated into heightened motivation and resilience. Unorthodox educations were also common, while social and cultural capital was often built outside formal settings. They often described themselves as outsiders, mavericks, rebels and on the margins. Cities can nurture intercultural innovation by recognising diversity and drawing on the skills and aptitudes therein. They also need to eliminate racism and institutional lethargy and provide favourable funding and resource conditions. Innovators can be awkward, so cities cannot shy away from difficult-to-resolve issues. DOWNLOAD SUMMARY REPORT The need for new indicators Currently available data can describe the ethnic make-up of a community but little of their degree of interaction or co-operation. Our study presents an isolation index of 78 English borough which is a quantitative measure of the likelihood of a person living next door to someone from a different background. However, further indicators are clearly needed to answer questions of how easily and frequently different ethnicities mix, how open a city is in terms of the institutional framework, business, civil society and public space, and extent of intercultural co-operation and collaboration. These questions can be at least partially answered by measures of, for example, intermarriage, multilingualism and crossover networks, whilst documentary indicators, such as the existence of a Cultural Diversity or Intercultural strategy, are telling. To explore openness and interculturalism at an urban level, and test the assumptions of the indicators they devised, we undertook a case study in Bristol, interviewing active or prominent people from a wide social spectrum. Among the findings were that among younger people, especially second and third generation immigrants, day-to-day involvements from work to play mitigate against segregation. Also, the creative industries and arts sectors are significant arenas where mixing occurs. The main conclusion, however, is that even though a city may not outwardly display any signs of ethnic tension or antipathy, a passive state of ‘benign indifference’ is currently the UK default position and this is neither sufficient nor desirable if society is to make the most of diversity. Further work on developing practical indicators of openness and intercultural engagement will be one of the major strands of the projects over the next year.