Lived Experiences of Multiculture: The New Social and Spatial Relations of Diversity

In an increasingly ethnically diverse society, debates about migration, community, cultural difference and social interaction have never been more pressing.

Drawing on the findings from a two-year, qualitative Economic and Social Research Council funded study of different locations across England, Lived Experiences of Multiculture uses interdisciplinary perspectives to examine the ways in which complex urban populations experience, negotiate, accommodate and resist cultural difference as they share a range of everyday social resources and public spaces. The authors present novel ways of re-thinking and developing concepts such as multiculture, community and conviviality, whilst also repositioning debates which focus on conflict models for understanding cultural differences.

Amidst highly charged arguments over the social relations of belonging and the meanings of local and national identities, this timely volume will appeal to advanced undergraduate students and graduate students interested in fields such as Race and Ethnicity Studies, Sociology, Urban Studies, Human Geography and Migration Studies.

Sarah Neal is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociological Studies at the University of Sheffield.

Katy Bennett is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Leicester.

Allan Cochrane is Emeritus Professor of Urban Studies at the Open University.

Giles Mohan is Professor of International Development at the Open University.