ABSTRACT
The growing diversity of cities has been simultaneously conceptualised as economically productive, socially creative and nurturing of tolerance of difference (Florida 2005) and problematic, as evidenced through socially and spatially segregated populations, persistent inequalities, weak social capital, informal trust and co-operation and heightened prejudices towards ‘otherness’ (Amin 2012). Threaded through these debates has been the politicisation of residential segregation as an indicator of minority adaptation, social integration and intercultural relations (Phillips 2006). Whilst the meaning and measurement of residential segregation have long been contested in the scholarly literature, urban policies that aim to manage diversity through the promotion of spatial, social or ethnic mixing abound. At the forefront of such initiatives has been a concern across many European cities with the promotion of migrant integration and harmonious group relations through intercultural mixing, particularly at the neighbourhood scale (Phillips et al. 2014).
