Negotiating Conflicts in Urban Neighbourhoods

Programme group Transnational configurations, conflict and governance

This NICIS funded project is developed by the University of Amsterdam and the Delft University of Technology in cooperation with cities in the Dutch Randstad area and aims at developing the tie between conflict and context in changing urban communities.

NICIS Programme

Period: 01/2008 - 12/2012 

The project focuses on the perceptions and experiences that lie behind conflicts and that follow them on the one hand, and on the understanding of conflicts on their own terms on the other.

The approach combines attention to the particular character and significance of conflict under conditions of difference with an awareness of the (latent) tensions that develop along lines of generations, gender and ethnicity.

Based on discussion with the cities in the consortium prior to the research project, the need for a clearer understanding of two aspects of urban conflicts and tensions are addressed.

First, there is a need to reflect on the practices through which conflicts are negotiated, managed, and prevented in cities.

Second, there is a need for a more in-depth understanding of the social processes and (latent) tensions behind conflicts that can help to establish if the right things are being done to prevent or manage conflicts.

Important international contributors to the projects are:

• Professor Sara Cobb of George Mason University
• dr. John Forester of Cornell University 
• dr. Kimberlyn Leary of Harvard University.

Published by  AISSR

27 June 2013