Fostering Pluralism through Solidarity Activism in Europe Everyday Encounters with Newcomers

This edited collection brings together academics, artists and members of civil society organizations to engage in a discussion about the ideas of living with others, through concepts such as cosmopolitanism, solidarity, and conviviality, and the practices of doing so.  

In recent years, right wing and populist movements have emerged and strengthened across Europe and North America, rejecting the value of cultural, ethnic and religious plurality. Governments in Europe and North America are weakening their commitment to the international refugee regime, erecting new barriers to entry. Even as governments fail to accommodate growing pluralism, however, civil society initiatives have emerged with the aim of welcoming newcomers, such as migrants and refugees, and finding alternative ways of living together in diverse societies. Motivated by a desire to show solidarity, these initiatives demonstrate enormous creativity in fostering pluralism in an environment that has largely become hostile to the arrival of newcomers. The contributions gathered here seek to explore such initiatives and the important work that they do in fostering ways of living together with others from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. In focusing conceptually and empirically on discussions and examples of civil society initiatives, this book interrogates why, how and under what circumstances are some communities more welcoming than others.

Chapter 1: Introduction: Living with Others: Opening Communities to Newcomers

Chapter 2: The Politics and Art of Solidarity: The case of Trampoline House in Copenhagen

Chapter 3: The Unintended Effects of Conviviality: How Welcome Initiatives in Germany Can Push back Hostility Towards Refugees

Chapter 4: Building Solidarity Cities: From Protest to Policy

Chapter 5: State, Civil Society, and Syrians in Turkey

Chapter 6: Stitching IMMART: Overcoming the Challenge of Inclusion without Exclusion through the Arts

Chapter 8: Facilitating cross-cultural dialogue through film, art and culture: Searching Traces and The Mahalla Festival

Chapter 9: Connecting through Cooking: Kitchen Hubs as Spaces for Bringing Locals and Newcomers Together  

Chapter 10: Kirkayak Kültür: Facilitating Living Together

Chapter 11: Conclusion

Feyzi Baban is Associate Professor of Political Studies and International Development at Trent University, Peterborough, Canada. His research interests include cosmopolitan theory, the politics of citizenship in late modern societies, European Integration and alternative forms of modernity in non-Western cultures.

Kim Rygiel is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Balsillie School of International Affairs at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada. She is Associate Director of Laurier’s International Migration Research Centre and Associate Editor of the journal Citizenship Studies.  She is the author of Globalizing Citizenship (2010) and co-editor (with Peter Nyers) of Citizenship, Migrant Activism and the Politics of Movement (2012).