Final Conference "Urban Minorities": 13th & 14th of November, 2014
Cities have always been places of meeting and exchange. Striking differences and perceivable strangeness could not always have been resolved into a harmonious cooperation but quite often lead to a tense co-existence and, not least, again and again to more or less violent conflicts. Yet, in such places, cultural techniques of personal interaction with each other and of dealing with diversity have been developed, practiced and refined.
In these processes, minorities have played a crucial role, which constitutes the starting point for our devotion to “Urban Minorities” and their everyday world in cities shaped by German or Islamic influence. This is our particular concern, as the relationship of “West” and “Orient”, more than virtually any other, has been characterized historically, and is so recently, by misunderstandings and conflicts, but also by mutual enrichment, although, currently, differences are emphasized stronger than the no less existing similarities. However, the seemingly disparate things intertwine much stronger and are inextricably linked with each other.
It has been the concern of our project to give students and outsiders the opportunity to meet, to get to know each other, to learn to together and from each other in the framework of thematic workshops, presentations and discussions.
The final conference aims at bringing these voices together at the end, to collect insights and theories and to come up with an agenda for the following years. Participation in the conference is free and no registration needed. The Conference was rendered possible thanks to funding from the German Academic Exchance Service (DAAD), from means of the Federal Foreign Office (AA).