ABSTRACT
This book has focused on the physical, social, and political-institutional attributes of urban peace building amidst democratic transitions and competing nationalist agendas. Each of the areas has been exposed to periods of significant political uncertainty, caused by violent nationalistic conflict (in the cases of Sarajevo and Mostar) or nonviolent regime change (in the cases of Barcelona and the Basque Country cities). These are “extreme” illustrations of how urbanism is influenced by, and itself influences, processes of democratization and inter-group accommodation. Yet, hundreds of cities across the globe will address and negotiate in incremental and evolutionary ways the great challenges of inter-group coexistence, tolerance, and multinational democracy that have been thrust upon these four case studies because of political and nationalistic pressures. War, conflict, and societal breakage in Bosnia and Spain provide lessons for how political leaders in cities throughout the world can cope constructively with societal uncertainty and multinational tension.
