Diversity of Belonging in Europe Public Spaces, Contested Places, Cultural Encounters

Belonging - and not belonging - lies at the core of many of the recent ‘crises’ and ongoing processes of change that are shaping - and shaking up - contemporary Europe. New forms of socio-spatial inclusion and exclusion have been embraced, contested and (re)negotiated as part of ongoing processes of social change, connected to migration and displacement, post-socialism and decolonisation, populism and polarisation. This book aims to provide insights into how these transformative processes impact on identification with (and alienation from) diverse practices and discourses of belonging, at different scales and from multiple perspectives. We focus on the ways in which renegotiations of belonging have been, and continue to be, played out through cultural encounters with difference and change, in diverse public spaces and contested places.
The book will be valuable for scholars interested in belonging and the politics of belonging, as well as for those focussing on: heritage, memory, museums and public history; urban history and design; cultural studies, cultural policy and European studies. It provides important theoretical and interdisciplinary perspectives on complex and critical issues emerging from the diversity of belonging within contemporary Europe and by doing so, hopes to bring a more nuanced understanding of the diversity of belonging in, to, and for Europe.