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This project uncovers how xenophobia and racism are challenged within local communities in Europe. Through projects such as kitchen hubs, arts projects, and shared living spaces, we illustrate how newcomers and locals come together and create new, shared living experiences.

This living together –what we call transgressive cosmopolitanism – is rooted in the everyday lives of uprooted and marginalized peoples such as migrants and refugees. It is practiced daily within neighborhoods and communities.

We  use these themes to organize case studies to answer the following questions:

  • Why, how and under what conditions some communities are more open to cultural difference than others;
  • What types of projects facilitate openness to newcomers;
  • And how do citizens and non-citizens participate in these projects in ways that transform understandings of citizenship and belonging.

This five-year project is is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.  The project is conducted by Professor Kim Rygiel at Wilfrid Laurier University and Professor Feyzi Baban at Trent University in Canada.

Living Together Report

The Cultural Policy Studies department of The Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) released  its seventh report titled ‘Living Together: Fostering Cultural Pluralism through the Arts’ in July 2018.

Co-authored by Dr. Feyzi Baban from Trent University and Dr. Kim Rygiel from Wilfrid Laurier University, the report focuses on the role of culture and the arts in facilitating the long-term integration of newcomers and alternative forms of living together in societies that are increasingly diverse and pluralistic, especially in the context of migration.

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This project is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

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