Boundaries, Barriers and Bridges: Comparative Findings from European Neighbourhoods

Abstract

At the end of our tour of European cities, this final chapter will be devoted to a comparative analysis based on the empirical findings from our target neighbourhoods. We will take into account the various levels of analysis explained in the Introduction: representations and narratives of residents and neighbourhood users; social practices and relations among groups as observable in everyday situations; macro-frames as generated by local media and neighbourhood policy communities. More precisely, concerning everyday processes, we will look at the ways in which both social and spatial boundaries are built and marked. In analyzing macro-frames, we will focus on what we have called neighbourhood policy communities (see Introduction) and their ability to create their own narratives and thus also on their ability to influence local media representations and to contrast xenophobic movements.