Multiculturalism | EPFL Graph Search

The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchangeably, and for cultural pluralism in which various ethnic and cultural groups exist in a single society. It can describe a mixed ethnic community area where multiple cultural traditions exist (such as New York City or London) or a single country within which they do (such as Switzerland, Belgium or Russia). Groups associated with an indigenous, aboriginal or autochthonous ethnic group and settler-descended ethnic groups are often the focus. In reference to sociology, multiculturalism is the end-state of either a natural or artificial process (for example: legally-controlled immigration) and occurs on either a large national scale or on a smaller scale within a nation's communities. On a smaller scale this can occur artificially when a jurisdict

Urban Movements in Lisbon’s Crisis Environment

Letícia Cabeçadas Do Carmo

Within a context of a social and economic crisis, the city of Lisbon is shyly starting to thrill with desire for change. Several socio-cultural spaces, with different degrees of autonomy from the state and the market forces, are having in fact an important role in this city’s regeneration, revealing the existence of, and this is our departing hypothesis, a wider urban movement. Several issues come then into the table of discussion: Does an urban movement need to be recognized? If so, by whom? The authorities? The actors themselves? Should they be aware of the movement existence, knowing each other and having previously discussed common interests? Or would it be enough that the movement could be recognizable from an outsider perspective, as a “whole” that actually stands for the same principles, rights and interests, even if the actors are not officially working in a network and/or are not completely aware of such a course of action? We shall, first of all, describe these spaces and explain why we understand their emergence and their activities as an urban movement. The corresponding social and urban context shall be exposed and divided into three neighbourhoods that are about to converge into one (Mouraria, Intendente, Anjos), or at least to become physically linked through particular impulses of socio-cultural fluxes along a linear element (Rua da Palma / Av. Almirante Reis). The subject of urban scale spatiality as well as localized occupations and appropriations of spaces are central to the understanding of the whole process. This spatial development, which is influenced by those different fluxes coming from opposite sides and has been reinforced with the recent physical displacement of the Lisbon’s Mayor central office into Intendente, generates a particular kind of gentrification (Ruth 1964; Smith 1996). Three types of gentrification are, as a matter of fact, taking place: one that evokes the traditional, then touristic and finally multi-cultural city (Mouraria), another one that evokes the Creative City (Intendente, Florida 2002; Landry 1995), and finally one that evokes the artist-activist occupation of the “forgotten” city (Anjos, claiming the right to the city: Lefebvre 1968). However, the three phenomena become a single one when it comes to the will of these neighbourhood’s inhabitants of wanting to recover the lost organic social structure and conviviality. In fact, their strength comes particularly from the specificity of their programs, like the creation of certain events or the most diversified workshops/courses. Recycling and participative architectures are also encouraged, as well as urban gardening, cycling as a way of moving in the city, or convivial meetings around shared kitchens. Many or most of the main actors related with these spaces belong in one way or another to wider and known urban activist movements, just like “Plataforma 15 de Outubro”, “Precarios Inflexíveis”, “Movimento Sem Emprego”, “Indignados”, “Geração à Rasca” or “Massa Crítica”.

2013

Comfort, climatic background and adaptation time: first insights from a post-occupancy evaluation in multicultural workplaces

Marilyne Andersen, Luisa Pastore

One of the effects of globalization and work mobility is the increasing multiculturalism in the workplace. While contemporary design policies for energy efficiency and comfort regulations are moving towards the adoption of models customized for local communities, consideration on the coexistence of people with different origins is underestimated in the current comfort debate. The aim of this study is to show whether building occupants' comfort rating can be affected by their climatic background as well as their duration of living in the current country of residence. A post-occupancy evaluation (POE) was carried out in two office buildings located in Switzerland accounting for a high rate of international employees. Questionnaires were distributed among the building occupants with the aim to investigate, among other things, their satisfaction with temperature, air quality, lighting, noise, view to the outside and privacy. With regard to thermal comfort and air quality, the results show that indeed people's rating varied significantly according to their climate of origin as well as with the time span spent in the country. However, no statistically significant differences were found in terms of their satisfaction level with the other above-mentioned comfort factors. Overall, the study provides new insights on the relationship between comfort perception, cultural background and people's adaptive behavior, raising questions about the appropriateness of current comfort models and design strategies to achieve adequate environmental conditions in workplaces.

NCEUB 20182018

Speaking Swiss: Languages and Venues in Foursquare

Daniel Gatica-Perez, Darshan Santani

Due to increasing globalization, urban societies are becoming more multicultural. The availability of large-scale digital mobility traces e.g. from tweets or checkins provides an opportunity to explore multiculturalism that until recently could only be addressed using survey-based methods. In this paper we examine a basic facet of multiculturalism through the lens of language use across multiple cities in Switzerland. Using data obtained from Foursquare over 330 days, we present a descriptive analysis of linguistic differences and similarities across five urban agglomerations in a multicultural, western European country.

2013

Urban Movements in Lisbon’s Crisis Environment

Letícia Cabeçadas Do Carmo

2013