#ALFCitiesInDialogue – Inclusive Cities: Challenges or Opportunities

The webinar ‘Inclusive Cities: Challenges or Opportunities’ sheds light on the timely matter of displacement, refuge, and migration in Europe and Eastern Mediterranean countries and the importance of cultural and religious diversity for social cohesion and the prosperity of the societies. The webinar articulates egalitarian methods of addressing intercultural dialogue at the city level through presentations and debating migrants/refugees and host community relations. The debate and presentations explicate innovative and interdisciplinary practices for socially just societies that promote intercultural dialogue, hence Urban Citizenship and the Right to the City. Urban Citizenship is the triadic relation between politics, urban spaces, and individual/collective engagement. The Right to the City is considered as the right to collective power for reshaping and transforming the urban in a manner that is inclusive and intercultural, and not negligent of the human rights of any vulnerable and minority group.

The debate aims to acknowledge the timely necessity for a vision, supportive policies, and initiatives for intercultural dialogue to prevent xenophobia and discrimination on the scale of the city. Through the participation of different actors from different paths of life, it will advocate for social cohesion and intercultural interaction, counter-arguing discrimination, stereotyping, and intolerance. It also aims to acknowledge multicultural cities aligned with sustainable development goals and the 2030 Eurovision, as inclusive cities that embrace urban citizenship and the right to the city.

The objectives of the webinar are twofold. On the individual scale, raising awareness, understandings, and capabilities of individuals concerned with the inclusiveness and sustainability of their environment; and develop a more comprehensive understanding of migrants/refugees and host community relations as a multilayered process including the social, spatial, and economic. On the public scale, forming a network of diverse, transnational host communities and propagating knowledge, methodology, and pedagogy across borders and while advancing modalities of inclusive cities.

The webinar has two panels hosting a total of 7 presentations in English. After the second panel, the floor will be open for Q&A and discussions for all participants. The entire session will be recorded and later uploaded on the website of the museum for outreach and future reference.