Interculturality: A Preferential Path in the Search for a New Urban Social Equilibrium?

In the context of a more general project focussing on cities and intercultural relationships in Switzerland, this paper intends to present certain types of places in which exchange and transaction take place, not only between the immigrant and indigenous populations, but also between the different immigrant ethnic groups inhabiting the Lausanne urban area. ¹ It also seeks to examine the context in which these places emerged and the discourses that underlie them by placing the emphasis on the representations that are made of these places and on the construction of sense and the way in which space is structured. Our interest in these 'hybrid places' stems from the notion that immigration in urban centres promotes a 'culture of mixedness' which in itself represents the central issue in the whole question of cohabitation between and integration of different populations at the urban level.