Crisis, Conflict and Celebration in European Cities: An Introduction

We begin this book with the not-so-provocative statement that the last few years have posed great challenges for contemporary societies. Climate change and other socio-environmental (and technological) risks; global health hazards and the intrinsic vulnerabilities they have exposed; (inter)national warfare and the concomitant rise in migration and refugee flows; the rise of ethno-nationalist and anti-immigrant sentiment that have ensued such migratory flows; soaring housing prices and the depletion of social welfare systems and social services. These are but a few examples of social problems that contemporary societies have had to grapple with in the last few years. And, although these are surely global issues, it might be argued that it is in the world’s urban areas that the effects of such challenges (crises), the struggles they stimulate (conflicts), and also their resolution (celebrations) take shape (Sassen, 2018). This edited volume aims to focus on the expressions of these contemporary global challenges in European urban areas. It revolves, and is structured around, these three central and interrelated dimensions of contemporary urban life: crisis, conflict, and celebration.