Postcolonial manifestations of African spatiality in Europe : the invisible 'public' spaces of Ghent

The focus of this chapter is on everyday spaces of African migration in the mid-sized city of Ghent. One manifestation of African spatiality is discussed in-depth in relation to its (in)visibility and publicity: an African shop located in an ordinary terraced house. With no less than 12 activities taking place in the building, the shop is rather a “public” place than solely a space of commercial transactions, although this is not signaled in very visible ways. By analyzing the modest stylistic appropriations of the façade and the significant re-arrangements of the buildings’ interior spaces that challenge more conventional usages of spaces in Ghent’s ordinary houses, this chapter puts this African shop to the fore as emblematic of how the process of materialization of transnational lifestyles and connections is always a balancing act between the visibility necessary for functioning as a (semi-)pubic place and the invisibility required to circumvent hegemonic regulatory regimes

Living in the city: School friendships, diversity and the middle classes

Much of the literature on the urban middle classes describes processes of both affiliation (often to the localities) and disaffiliation (often from some of the non-middle-class residents). In this paper, we consider this situation from a different position, drawing on research exploring whether and how children and adults living in diverse localities develop friendships with those different to themselves in terms of social class and ethnicity. This paper focuses on the interviews with the ethnically diverse, but predominantly white British, middle-class parent participants, considering their attitudes towards social and cultural difference. We emphasize the importance of highlighting inequalities that arise from social class and its intersection with ethnicity in analyses of complex urban populations. The paper's contribution is, first, to examine processes of clustering amongst the white British middle-class parents, particularly in relation to social class. Second, we contrast this process, and its moments of reflection and unease, with the more deliberate and purposeful efforts of one middle-class, Bangladeshi-origin mother who engages in active labour to facilitate relationships across social and ethnic difference

Mapping the role of ‘transnational family habitus’ in the lives of young people and children

In this article, we develop the concept of ‘transnational family habitus’ as a theoretical tool for making sense of the ways in which children and young people from a migrant background are ‘doing families’ transnationally. Drawing on over a decade of cumulative research on Caribbean and Italian families in the UK, as well as on a new joint research project, we first investigate the opportunities and consequences of a transnational family habitus on family arrangements, kinship relationships and identity within a transnational context. Second, we analyse the role of these young people's structural location in Britain in shaping the boundaries of their transnational family habitus. We argue that one should see a transnational family habitus as an asset that can potentially disrupt conventional understandings of belonging and processes of inclusion and exclusion. However, we also detail how social divisions of class, race, and increasingly migration status, shape such a habitus

Conviviality by design : the socio-spatial qualities of spaces of intercultural urban encounters

This paper presents findings from a mixed-method research project which explored use of outdoor spaces and social connections in Bradford, a post-industrial city in the north of England with a highly ethnically diverse population. Data was collected through micro-scale behavioural mapping of public spaces (analysed using GIS) and both on-site and in-depth interviews. The integration of these methods allows a focus on intersectional identities and social values for everyday conviviality situated in different typologies of public open spaces (parks, squares, streets) in city centre and suburban neighbourhoods. The analysis offers nuanced insights into the socio-spatial aspects of conviviality: patterns of activity by diverse users, situations in which encounters are prompted, and the implications of negotiating differences in relation to perceptions of self, others, and the environment. We discuss the relevance of the urban public realm for shared understandings of diversity, qualities of visibility, lingering and playfulness, and the importance of threshold spaces. We explore racialised and excluding experiences and how these relate to mobility and territorial patterns of use, specifically with relation to gender. The paper highlights connections between intercultural encounters and urban design practice, with implications for well-being and integration in ethnically diverse urban areas