Major cities are becoming increasingly diverse, and the different aspects of diversity interact in shaping individual lives and neighbourhoods. However, existing research mainly presents the urban population living with this diversity as one group with the same overall perception of diversity. The purpose of this article is to nuance the concept of diversity through analysing the differences in urban residents’ perceptions of neighbourhood diversity and the factors shaping these perceptions. The article is based on 50 qualitative interviews with residents of Bispebjerg, one of the most diverse neighbourhoods of Copenhagen, Denmark. The overall finding is that living with diversity is a diverse experience. The article identifies five ideal types of residents to demonstrate how perceptions of diversity are being shaped. They all express a positive perception of diversity on an abstract level but voice concerns regarding concrete aspects of diversity. The article identifies key factors shaping these concrete perceptions of diversity: insecurity towards ethnic diversity; social inequality; degree of socialisation to diversity; and physical and social detachment from diversity. The findings point to the importance of acknowledging differences between perceptions of diversity for different groups of residents and of addressing the different concerns of these groups.
This article analyses how policies to foster social cohesion within diverse and unequal urban contexts are affected by New Public Management and austerity policies. Based on the analysis of a handful of governance arrangements in three cities that differ in their institutional structure and diversity policy approaches (Copenhagen, Leipzig and Milan), it is shown that negative effects are quite widespread yet cushioned by a strong welfare state structure, solid local government and high priority given to the recognition of diversity. Nevertheless, the shift towards the application of market logic to social work reduces innovative potential, increases efforts spent on procedures and weakens public coordination.
This article investigates the interconnectedness between neighbourhood diversity and local business structures. For this purpose, interviews with residents and entrepreneurs were conducted in three European cities: Budapest, Copenhagen, and Milan. The results show that diversity in the economic structure of urban neighbourhoods is equally important with regards to residents’ quality of life, the image of the neighbourhood, and local social cohesion. Therefore, the main recommendation is that policy makers should act to preserve the diversity of local business structures, and that the concept of diversity itself should be understood in a broader sense, taking local peculiarities into account.
In a welfare society like Denmark, deliberately downsizing on dwelling space is at odds with prevailing norms of good housing. Furthermore, the city is perceived as a place for youth or younger single adults, whereas family life is perceived as belonging to suburbia. Yet this paper explores the housing choice processes of urban compact living: middle-class households living in the city in much less space than conventionally. Existing research on this is lacking. Taking an explorative approach, the study is designed to allow this new empirical field to unfold and aims at grasping and understanding the themes and narratives at play. The study focusses on families with children living in Copenhagen, a city lauded for its liveability and high housing conditions, and in which urban compact living is thus very controversial. The paper identifies living in the city as a paramount part of imaginaries of home to an extent that dwellings are deprioritised. However, living in the city and compact living are both attributed features such as progressivity, social awareness, unruliness, and anti-materialism. Introducing a cultural and social understanding of spaciousness, the paper argues that in such narratives, the city and compact living are perceived as physically compact, yet socially spacious.
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