Concordia Discors
Concordia Discors: Understanding Conflict and Integration Outcomes of Inter-Group Relations and Integration Policies in selected Neighbourhoods of Five European Cities is a European trans-national project funded by the European Integration Fund and led by the Forum of International and European Research on Immigration (FIERI) in Italy. COMPAS is responsible for the UK research as part of this project.
Aims and objectives
Concordia Discors intends to investigate intergroup relations at neighbourhood level, with the aim of producing a deep, strongly empirically-based and directly policy-relevant understanding of integration and conflict processes in European city neighbourhoods, including an understanding of success factors of integration policies and conflict prevention measures at neighbourhood level.
The project also aims to facilitate dialogue between the research community, policy-makers, migrants and civil society at a local, national and European level. We will provide evidence based recommendations to decision-makers at all these levels.
Background
The Latin expression “Concordia Discors” comes from one of Horace’s epistles and has become paradigmatic of a dynamic state of “discordant harmony”. A fundamental assumption of this project is that integration is a dynamic achievement and it is not a rigid state nor the conceptual opposite of conflict. It is thus necessary to face, thematize and analyze the inter-group tensions inevitably associated with integration processes, as a precondition for dealing with such tensions proactively and constructively.
Another assumption inspires this project: for all the differences in the ways in which integration issues emerge and are framed around the EU, an undisputable common feature is the decisive importance of cities, both in symbolical and in practical terms, as concrete contexts where integration “succeeds” or “fails”. This decisive role is generally not played by cities as indistinct wholes, but rather by specific neighbourhoods within each city which constitute high-visibility testing grounds for integration.
Methods
Intergroup relations will be viewed as the complex result of the interaction of three fundamental levels:
A) Direct interaction among members of settled and immigrant groups;
B) Public policies displaying their effects at neighbourhood level, including political/electoral communication strategies;
C) The action of those media whose information and representation flows contribute to shape people’s perception of themselves and of the others influencing the intergroup relations at neighbourhood level.
These dynamics will be investigated through two levels of comparison: i) between different neighbourhoods within the same city; ii) between neighbourhoods located in different cities and countries.
In order to catch the multidimensional nature of intergroup relations we will use mixed methodologies combining different complementary tools. The main research stages for the UK case study will be:
a. Background analysis carried out through statistical data on the socio-spatial characteristics of target neighbourhoods and their population in order to reconstruct the essential features of the opportunity structure of intergroup interaction.
b. Analysis of local policies displaying their effects at neighbourhood level through in-depth interviews to local policy-makers and stakeholders and analysis of policy documents. Special attention will also be given to political/electoral communication strategies since they can strongly influence intergroup relations regardless of their actual transformation into tangible policies.
c. Content analysis of information flows concerning intergroup-relations at neighbourhood level, giving particular attention to local newspapers, free press included, with the aim of singling out the dominant representations of the neighbourhood and the statements of different city actors.
d. Ethnographic fieldwork including participant observation and in-depth interviews.
e. Neighbourhood Forums (NFs) engaging residents belonging to different ethnic and social groups (local administrators, NGOs, ethnic associations, students, professionals, retired and elderly people, teachers, entrepreneurs, etc.) will be organised with the aim of reconstructing collective narratives of the neighbourhoods’ recent history. These NFs could also represent experiments of participatory practices at neighbourhood level. Videos on each of the NFs will be produced in order to give feedbacks to local populations and administrations on the work done.
f. Besides these videos, one more comprehensive and professionally made documentary film on the fieldwork in the five cities will be produced. The documentary will have a twofold aim: a) facilitating the dissemination of the project results, b) providing user-friendly material potentially useful for triggering collective reflection and future experiments in participatory governance at neighbourhood level.
Outputs
Concordia Discors Project Briefing
The COMPAS team will produce two country reports, one after the background research phase, and one at the end of the fieldwork, as well as leading on at least one English-language scientific journal article. FIERI will lead in producing a joint book publication, a documentary film and joint scientific journal articles, and organising a final conference.
Research Team
Dr Ben Gidley , COMPAS Senior Researcher
Dr Hiranthi Jayaweera, COMPAS Senior Researcher
Dr Ole Jensen, Research Officer
Funder
Co-funded by: European Fund for the Integration of Third Country Nationals
