8. Narratives of urban coexistence

In an era of social and political transformation, as urban environments become more diverse, the question of how people live together is complicated by rising trends of segregation and polarization in contemporary cities. As sites of encounter, social division and a realm of politics, cities are not just physical spaces but also social constructs where diverse people live, interact, and create shared experiences that govern urban life. The narratives of living together in the city emerge from the interactions between physical spaces and social practices, significantly shaped by underlying power dynamics. The deep entwinement of multiple diversities and intersectional inequalities also shape how the narratives of urban coexistence are created, often silencing some stories while emphasising others. These narratives are then formed through processes of negotiation and re-negotiation: They can be overlapping and even conflicting, some echoed wider than others.

In this session, we will firstly explore how differing and sometimes conflicting narratives about cities are constructed by diverse urban actors. We invite diverse perspectives on urban coexistence that are formed on the intertwined levels of residents, urban planners, policy makers and global events. Secondly, we will examine the role of intersectional positions and power relations in shaping individuals’ experiences, narratives and practices in cities. Struggles over the right to coexist in the city, sometimes resulting in exclusion and marginalisation from urban social life, are often targeted by official policies to revert prevalent patterns of segregation. Hence, we ask; how are narratives of coexistence formed through everyday existence and supported or contested by policy and planning interventions?  Thirdly, we will explore the diverse methods used to conduct research to unpack diverse narratives of urban coexistence. How can visual, experimental and ethnographic methods shed light on the narratives of coexistence in cities?

The session aims to create a space for discussing the dynamics of urban coexistence beyond a single level analysis and complicate the ways in which these themes can be investigated. We call for interdisciplinary contributions to enable dialogue between diverse perspectives and narratives on urban coexistence highlighting the missing links and divergences across different disciplines, as well as between research, policymaking and practice. We also invite empirical, conceptual and methodological contributions related to these themes and questions to explore in depth how urban coexistence is shaped, lived and narrated in various ways.