Ethnic Minorities, Cities, and Institutions: a Comparison of the Modes of Management of Ethnic Diversity of a French and a British City*

Abstract

Abstract In this chapter, I will seek to provide the basis for a more extensive research project aiming at understanding how Western European cities manage ethnic diversity arising from post-war immigration within the limits and resources of the institutional framework in which they operate. It is an attempt to bring the institutional approaches of ethnic conflict explored by Nordlinger (1972), Esman (1973), and Horowitz (1985), for instance, to the study of the politics of post-colonial minorities. The main thrust of these authors’ argument has been that the elites of states that are faced with cross-cutting ethnic conflicts are able to maintain the stability of the system by using institutional arrangements as instruments. I seek to transpose this type of model to the urban politics of ethnic minorities in order to provide new understandings of the political processes underlying the responses of cities to ethnic cleavages on their territories, ranging from urban regeneration programmes to anti-discrimination policies, institutionalisation, and symbolic recognition of ethnic groups.