Locally stranded, globally anchored? Dealing with diversity on the margins of the post-migrant city. A comparative study in Leipzig and Munich

• Applicant: Dr. Karin Wiest
• Subject Area: Human Geography
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 310500971

Starting point of the project is the rising significance of multiple transcultural and transnational identities and social realities in the frame of an increasing international migration to German cities. At the same time parts of the urban population are increasingly endangered by processes of marginalisation and poverty. Subject of the project is on the one hand the question how everyday life is experienced and negotiated in certain transcultural and marginalised places of the city and how this is related to the production of new urban realities. On the other hand the project targets the question how urban discourses in media and policy are dealing with the realities of a post-migrant society and to show the differences and mutual relations between these two different levels of consideration. The empirical studies carried out in the cities of Leipzig and Munich aim to explore differentiated experiences and strategies dealing with urban diversity and marginality. The exploration of transcultural and marginalised small life worlds in different urban contexts is based on an ethnographic approach with focus on participatory observation. On the other hand the logics and interpretative pattern related to public discourses dealing transcultural diversity and urban inequality are investigated by expert surveys and media analysis with particular emphasis on the analysis of metaphors. The comparison of urban discourses and everyday life practice in Munich and Leipzig is targeted to identify and to explain different ways to deal with marginalisation and diversity against the backdrop of certain political and socioeconomic structures. At the same time the comparative perspective is intended to conceptualise cities as globally interconnected spaces of transition.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants