Joseph Downing

European influence on diversity policy frames: paradoxical outcomes of Lyon's membership of the Intercultural Cities programme

This paper examines the formulation of policy frames towards new minorities in France by analysing Lyons membership of the European Commissions and Council of Europes Intercultural Cities programme (ICP). Here, with culture accounting for 20% of Lyons budget, emphasis is placed on the adoption of the Charte de Coopération Culturelle to use cultural institutions to implement difference-orientated policies. Critically, important issues emerge with this strategy. The effort to engage new minorities is hampered by significant apathy from cultural institutions in Lyon, and the limited geographical area of Lyon included in the ICP. Finally, institutions who engage with promoting interculturality co-opt existing organizations, with negative implications for the treatment of diversity in the city. This illustrates the problems with a European framework fostering a policy frame based on recognition for minorities in a context that has yet to fully embrace such policies at the national level.

Contesting and re-negotiating the national in French cities: examining policies of governance, Europeanisation and co-option in Marseille and Lyon

The past decade has seen a dynamic and contradictory treatment of difference in French policy-making, both nationally and locally. However, the means by which local difference orientated policies redefine the national is understudied. This article bridges this gap with a case study analysis of Marseille and Lyon to assess and typologize the ways that difference is deployed in local policy to influence, contest and negotiate the discursive performance and construction of the nation. Of particular importance here are modes of municipal governance, the influence of European government and the co-option of local voluntary groups into policy. This article concludes that both Marseille and Lyon provide rich examples of not only how municipalities are increasingly concerned with the notion of difference in policy-making, but also how their policies and engagement with local actors in dealing with nationally salient issues might lead to a redefinition of the national.

Fighting cultural marginalisation with symbolic power in a Parisian banlieue

Purpose – There exists a significant literature detailing the role of voluntary associations as important actors in mitigating forms of marginalisation under austerity. However, neglected in this literature is the role that such voluntary associations can play in forming and deploying “symbolic power” to fight post-colonial, cultural forms of marginalisation. This is important, especially given conditions where material forms of fighting marginalisation are limited by austerity. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – This paper employs a case study analysis, drawing on data collected during fieldwork and through archival research in France. This methodology allows for the investigation of the multitude of ways by which this association utilises post-colonial symbols to fight marginalisation. Findings – This paper finds that under conditions of austerity, the case study of this association demonstrates three important themes of analysis. First, the association, while not rece...

Influences on state–society relations in France: Analysing voluntary associations and multicultural dynamism, co-option and retrenchment in Paris, Lyon and Marseille

French governances ad hoc pluralism has offered scope for the emergence of increasing policy dynamism, particularly at the local level. Important in this process is the relationship between the local state and voluntary associations. However, it still remains little understood what external, exogenous factors shape, challenge and facilitate this relationship between the local state and voluntary associations. This paper seeks to contribute to filling this gap with a comparative analysis of three voluntary associations across Paris, Lyon and Marseille. These were chosen for their varying experiences of exogenous influences on their relationship to the local state and the analysis demonstrates that, while offering public recognition to migrant communities has become increasingly possible at the local level, the process remains very much contested, even subject to retrenchment.