Popular arts in migration and post-migration cities: A research framework

The paper presents a framework to research the relevance of popular arts in the theoretical and policy debates about diversity in migration and post-migration cities. It does so by relating to the five domains: local culture, social relations, local cultural and integration policies, local politics and the local economy.

At the cultural level, the aim is to examine how artistic productions of immigrant and ethno-racial minorities change the mainstream local culture or in other words the local configuration of diversity (Vertovec, 2009).

At the social level, we explore the idea that they can help to build bridges, to facilitate the encounters (Vertovec, 2009) between different populations sharing the same neighbourhood. In other words, popular arts can become a means of communication and dialogue between different groups to build some form of local shared citizenship

The paper then explores the policy relevance of popular arts imigration and post-migration cities. Are immigrant and ethnic artists and productions supported by official cultural institutions? Are local cultural policies becoming multicultural? It also seems important to examine to what extent popular arts are used and could be a useful tool in local integration and social cohesion policies.

At the political level, the paper studies the relations between popular arts, collective identities and the forms of the social and political mobilisation in multicultural cities (Martiniello and Lalfuer, 2008). The paper also proposes to research the importance of immigrant and ethnic artistic mobilisation in local elections (Lafleur and Martiniello, 2010).

Finally, the paper ambitions to examine the economic impact of immigrant and ethnic artistic expressions on the local economy through ethnic tourism (Rath, 2006), festivals but also the development of a local immigrant and ethnic artistic life.