Global Urban Environments

The term “diversity” has seen a revival in urban planning and policymaking in recent years, especially in the European context, prompting a rising need to more critically examine this concept through academic research. BCNUEJ researchers probe the meanings associated with “diversity” and how planning for diversity culturally and materially impacts social inequalities and inter-relations, local economies and everyday life. This research includes investigation of migration flows to cities, residential mobility, gentrification trends and the socio-ecological relations between various social groups as well as their uses of urban green spaces.  We further aim to understand the ways in which diversity is operationalized in urban policy-making and planning, especially in sustainability and greening projects, questioning how it may reproduce and legitimate inequalities.

• Fieldwork inhabitants, Paris (France) (Paris: Université Paris-Est Créteil, 2015)