The (mis)recognition of diversity in Italy between policy and practice: The case of Milan

Abstract

The article analyses the discourses, strategies and daily practices about diversity in Milan, Italy, framing them at different scales: (a) the national model of integration; (b) the city-level debate and policy framework about diversity; (c) the neighbourhood-level initiatives addressing (directly or indirectly) diversity; (d) representations and narratives about diversity among the residents of two neighbourhoods in the city. Drawing on qualitative research conducted between 2013 and 2015 with 33 interviews with key officials and policymakers and 52 interviews with inhabitants of two neighbourhoods in Milan, this work aims at disentangling how multi-scalar representations intertwine and intersect, to what extent the different scales influence each other and with what consequences on the multi-level governance of urban diversity. Considering both the bottom-up and the top-down perspectives, the results will highlight the detachment between people’s narratives and representations and the local and national frameworks of discourses and policy practice, especially focusing on the reasons for and consequences of this detachment, and on the role that the meso level of local initiatives has in connecting the macro and the micro levels. The focus on the meso level allows one to underline the weaknesses and potentialities of the urban policy level in fostering the production of an institutional environment that is able to acknowledge and promote diversity.