ABSTRACT
Belonging – and not belonging – lie at the core of many of the recent “crises” and ongoing processes of change that are shaping – contemporary Europe. New forms of socio-spatial inclusion and exclusion have been embraced, contested, and (re)negotiated as part of ongoing processes of social change, connected to migration and displacement, post-socialism and decolonization, populism and polarization. This book aims to provide insights into how these transformative processes impact identification with (and alienation from) diverse practices and discourses of belonging, at different scales and from multiple perspectives. Central to this book is the interconnection between the diversity of belonging, public spaces, contested places, and cultural encounters. In this introduction, we exemplify this interconnection and how it can contribute to new insights into the diversity of belonging. After elaborating on the complex and multimodal nature of belonging, we illustrate how these modalities are played out through cultural encounters in public spaces and contested places. We argue that the examination of such cultural encounters in diverse European contexts – which is at the core of this book – leads to new insights into the (re)negotiation of manifold and complex forms of belonging in, to, and for Europe.
