Community and Conviviality? Informal Social Life in Multicultural Places

Abstract

This paper contributes to understandings of the conviviality which has dominated recent sociological approaches to urban multiculture. The paper argues for conviviality's conceptual extension by reference to recent rethinking of community as a profound sociality of 'being with' (Studdert and develops their sociological and explanatory power and counters the reductions and limitations that are associated with both concepts.

Creating Urban Sociality in Middle–Class Neighborhoods in Milan and Bologna: A Study on the Social Streets Phenomenon

“…For this reason, a new concept is spreading nowadays among sociologists who work on urban relationships: conviviality, defined as an orientation toward shared lives lived through difference, so as connective interdependencies (Neal et al. :2–3). This concept aims to better express what is increasingly common in modern cities: individuals who are very different from each other find themselves living together in spaces of proximity and learn, through practice, to build bonds, values, and connections that take account of this diversity.…”

“…For this reason, in the past few years, a new debate has arisen among the sociological community: the links between conviviality, as “processes of constant negotiation about the ways in which connective social interactions take place and emerge across and through the thrown together difference that is urban multiculture” (Neal et al. :5), and community.…”

Hierarchical Assemblages of Citizenship and Belonging: The Pedestrian Speech Acts of British Gujarati Indian Walkers

“…Aarti: So, most of you are "outsiders"? Jasu: Yes, all friendly people Jasu represents this space as friendly, bonding individuals who not only share an interest in growing fruit and vegetables, but also, to one another (Neal et al, 2018). Jasu, interestingly, also includes some "white" European groups -long-term Irish communities -in her depiction of racial outsiders who, arguably, in other contexts, may hold honorary positions of whiteness in relation to those positioned as "original" whites (Ratna, 2014).…”

“…Building upon studies of informal leisure (Watson and Ratna, 2011;Thangaraj et al, 2018) and more recent sociological analyses of urban multi-culture (e.g. Jackson, 2018;Neal et al, 2018;Back et al, 2018;Valluvan, 2016;Yuval-Davis, Wemyss and Cassidy, 2018), I focus upon walking not only as a leisure pastime but also as a methodological approach, using pedestrian speech acts to explore "small" and "big" constructions and re/presentations of cityspaces. I also add to current debates about walking methodologies (see Bates and Rhys-Taylor, 2018) through a novel approach to constructing knowledge for, about, and with, familial relations.…”

Suburban ethnicities: Home as the site of interethnic conviviality and racism

“…Yet in spite of these notable contributions, this area of study has also attracted criticism (e.g., Ahmed, ; Alexander & Nayak, ; Valentine, ). In their succinct summary of such criticism, Neal, Bennett, Cochrane, and Mohan (, p. 70) observe that the conviviality approach has been criticized for failing to deliver evidence of “meaningful interactions” that challenge racism. They also highlight the ways in which the conviviality studies’ picture of urban diversity has been critiqued for marginalizing “structural inequalities” and “the harms of racism” in an unthinking “celebration of diversity” (, p. 70), and so not seeing the realities of racism that shape everyday life.…”