DIVERCITIES Governing Urban Diversity: governing urban diversity Creating Social Cohesion, Social Mobility and Economic Performance in Today’s Hyper-diversified Cities Dealing with Urban Diversity Dealing with Urban Diversity This book is one of the outcomes of the DIVERCITIES project. It focuses on the question of how to create social cohesion, social • mobility and economic performance in today’s hyper-diversified cities. The Case of Athens The Case of Athens The project’s central hypothesis is that urban diversity is an asset; it can inspire creativity, innovation and make cities more liveable. Georgia Alexandri There are fourteen books in this series: Antwerp, Athens, Dimitris Balampanidis Nicos Souliotis Budapest, Copenhagen, Istanbul, Leipzig, London, Milan, Thomas Maloutas Paris, Rotterdam, Tallinn, Toronto, Warsaw and Zurich. George Kandylis This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under www.urbandivercities.eu grant agreement No. 319970. SSH.2012.2.2.2-1; Governance of cohesion and diversity in urban contexts. DIVERCITIES: Dealing with Urban Diversity The Case of Athens Georgia Alexandri Dimitris Balampanidis Nicos Souliotis Thomas Maloutas George Kandylis Governing Urban Diversity: Creating Social Cohesion, Social Mobility and Economic Performance in Today’s Hyper-diversified Cities To be cited as: Alexandri, G., D. Balampanidis, Lead Partner N. Souliotis, T. Maloutas and G. Kandylis (2017). - Utrecht University, The Netherlands DIVERCITIES: Dealing with Urban Diversity – The case of Athens. Athens: EKKE. Consortium Partners - University of Vienna, Austria This report has been put together by the authors, - University of Antwerp, Belgium and revised on the basis of the valuable comments, - Aalborg University, Denmark suggestions, and contributions of all DIVERCITIES - University of Tartu, Estonia partners. - University Paris-Est Créteil, France - Helmholtz Centre for Environmental The views expressed in this report are the sole Research – UFZ, Germany responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily - Fachhochschule Erfurt, Germany reflect the views of European Commission. - National Centre for Social Research (EKKE), Greece - University of Szeged, Hungary - University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Italy - University of Amsterdam, Netherlands - Delft University of Technology (TUDelft), The Netherlands - Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland - synergo Mobility-Politics-Space GmbH, Switzerland - Middle East Technical University (METU), Turkey - University College London, United Kingdom Advisory Board - Jan Vranken, University of Antwerp, Belgium ISBN 978 90 6266 456 6 - David Hulchanski, University of Toronto, Canada © 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, by print or photo print, microfilm or any other means, without written permission by the publishers. Copy Editors: Melissa Lee and David Wills Cover Image: Stathoula Mandilara / www.flickr.com/ photos/olapringinoun/ Design & Layout: C&M, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands Printed by: Xerox, The Netherlands A digital version of this report is available on the DIVERCITIES website: http://www.urbandivercities.eu In memory of Ronald van Kempen CONTENTS Preface 7 1 Dealing with urban diversity: an introduction 9 1.1 Introduction 9 1.2 The purpose of the book 11 1.3 Diversity and its effects: some key arguments 11 1.4 The outline of this book 18 2 Athens as a diverse city 21 2.1 Locating Athens 21 2.2 Diverse-city Athens 25 2.3 Origins and causes of diversity in Athens 26 2.4 Socio-spatial dynamics of diversity in Athens 28 2.5 Diversity, economic dynamics and entrepreneurship in Athens 32 2.6 Challenges and opportunities of Athens as a diverse city 34 3 Policy discourses on diversity 37 3.1 Introduction 37 3.2 Methodology 39 3.3 National policy approaches towards diversity: structure and shifts 39 3.4 Governmental discourses and the governance of diversity in Athens 45 3.5 Non-governmental perspectives on the governance of diversity 60 3.6 Governance arrangements and initiatives 65 3.7 Conclusions 68 4 Residents dealing with diversity 71 4.1 Introduction 71 4.2 Methodology 72 4.3 Housing choice and residential mobility 73 4.4 Perceptions of the diversity in the neighbourhood 79 4.5 Activities in and outside the neighbourhood 85 4.6 Social cohesion 91 4.7 Social mobility 98 4.8 Perceptions of public policies 102 4.9 Conclusions 105 5 Entrepreneurs dealing with diversity 107 5.1 Introduction 107 5.2 Methodology 108 5.3 The entrepreneurs and their businesses 109 5.4 Starting an enterprise in a diverse urban area 112 5.5 Economic performance and the role of urban diversity 122 5.6 Institutional support and government policies 129 5.7 Conclusions 133 6 Conclusions: dealing with urban diversity 137 6.1 Brief summary of the book 137 6.2 Urban diversity: an asset or a liability? 138 6.3 Suggestions for policy: how to make use of the results 140 References 143 Appendices 1. List of policy documents 154 2. List of actors interviewed 156 Notes 163 PREFACE This book is one of the outcomes of the DIVERCITIES project. It focuses on the question of how to create social cohesion, social mobility and economic performance in today’s hyper- diversified cities.The project’s central hypothesis is that urban diversity is an asset; it can inspire creativity, innovation and make cities more liveable and harmonious. To ensure a more intelligent use of diversity’s potential, a re-thinking of public policies and governance models is needed. Headed by Utrecht University in the Netherlands, DIVERCITIES is a collaborative research project comprising 14 European teams. DIVERCITIES is financed by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme (Project No. 319970). There are fourteen books in this series, one for each case study city. The cities are: Antwerp, Athens, Budapest, Copenhagen, Istanbul, Leipzig, London, Milan, Paris, Tallinn, Toronto, Warsaw and Zurich. This book is concerned with Athens. The texts in this book are based on a number of previously published DIVERCITIES reports. The authors The Case of Athens 7 8 DIVERCITIES: Dealing with Urban Diversity 1 DEALING WITH URBAN DIVERSITY: AN INTRODUCTION1 1.1 INTRODUCTION Cities are diverse environments. They are always mixed in all respects, including activities, housing and population groups. This mix can be organised at different scales depending on the historical, economic and socio-demographic processes that have shaped the city space. In some cities, economic activities and residences are somewhat separated into distinct areas. In other cities, as in Athens, which is the subject of this book, production and housing coexist in the urban tissue. The same goes for populations. In some cities, urban neighbourhoods may be fairly homogeneous residential areas housing social and ethnic groups with similar characteristics and resources. In other cities, neighbourhoods show a more mixed population with respect to, for example, income, ethnicity, age and household composition. In all cases, compared to non-urban areas, cities are places where diversity prevails. This diversity has always been one of the motors driving the social, cultural and economic dynamism of cities. From almost the beginning of their existence, the social sciences (sociology, social geography) have attempted to conceptualise and explain the emergence of diversity in cities. Scholars have focused on issues such as the concentration of strangers in the city, the primacy of ‘secondary’ groups in urban social life and the patterns of social mix and segregation of the groups that constitute the population of the city. At the same time, however, urban diversity has continuously taken different forms due to various economic, social and technological changes. Waves of immigration (whether linked to country-specific reasons or wider processes such as globalisation), the transformation of social stratification (including phenomena like the increase in professional occupations and the reduction of the working class in post-industrial cities), deindustrialisation and the rise of services, technologies and creative activities, and the development of new transport systems are just a few of the factors that have led to astonishing transformations of urban diversity, which calls for the understanding of new scientific concepts and approaches. At the same time, diversity constitutes a politically contentious issue and hence often becomes the target of attacks. Ethnic diversity may be seen as a threat to national identity, native workers’ interests and so on. Diversity in terms of sexual orientation may be seen as a threat to moral order, while diversity in lifestyles may be seen as a threat to traditions. The DIVERCITIES project adopts a critical stance towards these perceptions as well as an explicitly positive attitude towards diversity. The project’s main normative and analytical concern was to investigate whether and, if so, how diversity may function as an asset for urban social, cultural and economic life. The Case of Athens 9 It is within this framework that this book focuses on living with urban diversity. We are aware of the negative consequences of living in diverse urban areas, but we want to specifically focus on the often-neglected positive aspects that residents and entrepreneurs see, feel and experience. Living with diversity may take place in a neighbourhood that – at first glance – is not the most