The Socio‐spatial Conditions of the Open City: A Theoretical Sketch

Detlev Ipsen

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2005, vol. 29, issue 3, 644-653

Abstract: Without additional immigration of several million people over the next few decades, the demographic development of most European countries will lead to a considerable population decrease. Because such a reduction is neither desirable nor realistically possible, cities in particular will be the target of increasing immigration, and hence will undergo qualitative change. Today, there are large ethnic and cultural minorities in many German cities and suburbs; in the future, whole cities will become international, and suburbs will become ethnic‐cultural communities. This article presents a theory for the discussion on how such a change can be managed productively. The concept of the ‘open city’ is understood as both a risk and an opportunity. This article pleads for a socio‐culturally segregated division of urban space for the prevention of discrimination to be possible. The multitude of separate cultures must be supplemented by a ‘hyper‐culture’ in order to integrate the urban culture as a whole. Sans l’apport de l’immigration de plusieurs millions de personnes au cours des prochaines décennies, l’évolution démographique de la plupart des pays d’Europe aboutira à une nette chute de population. Comme une telle diminution n’est ni souhaitable ni une réalité envisageable, les villes notamment vont être la cible d’une immigration croissante, donc subir des changements qualitatifs. Aujourd’hui, il existe d’importantes minorités ethniques et culturelles dans de nombreuses villes et banlieues allemandes: à l’avenir, la totalité des villes deviendront internationales et les banlieues se feront communautés ethno‐culturelles. Cet article présente une théorie comme base de discussion sur la manière de gérer ce changement de façon productive. Le concept de ‘ville ouverte’ est perçu à la fois comme un risque et une opportunité. L’article plaide pour une division socio‐culturelle de l’espace urbain comme moyen de prévention de la discrimination. La multitude de cultures distinctes doit être complétée d’une ‘hyper‐culture’ afin d’intégrer en bloc la culture urbaine.

Date: 2005
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2005.00609.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:29:y:2005:i:3:p:644-653

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0309-1317

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research is currently edited by Alan Harding, Roger Keil and Jeremy Seekings

More articles in International Journal of Urban and Regional Research from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().