ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates the dynamics of diversity in an urban setting, with diversity not being based on ethnicity, gender or class but on more general differences in power. Memories are a social activity and a social product, and can also be considered as a binding force of a group identity. It is through such memories that the territorial claims of a group. The workers contrast their nostalgic memories of former good times with today's situation in a transformed figuration. The theory of figuration, developed by Norbert Elias, refers to the interdependence of everyday activities. Nostalgia can mask past social divisions, and lead to a negative sense of the present. As people with different cultures adapt their practices to these regulations, the result is a homogenisation of the community. In the case of Werderau, communities are put in place also by homogenisation processes implemented using rules and regulations that support the powerful position.
