Diversity and Integration

Europe has a long and varied history of inwards migration, which has helped to contribute to the culturally and socially rich societies we see today. But in recent years, the pace and complexity of change has increased, such that new approaches are needed to managing the diversity that has resulted. This is made even more urgent by the current economic situation, which puts a strain on resources and runs the danger of dividing communities.

ISD’s work in this area seeks to enhance understanding of the drivers of polarisation; advocate for solutions at the strategic, political, policy and practical levels; improve understanding of what works; fill institutional and structural gaps by fostering new partnerships, transformative networks or fledgling organisations; and develop new narratives that will underpin a long-term and sustainable response to social polarisation.

This area of work includes the following projects and initiatives:

CEDAR is a pan European network of Muslim professionals working to generate a culture of success and leadership amongst Europe’s diverse  communities.

This research project, which will include  interviews in France, the UK and Germany, will also investigate diversity of media production and programming and its relationship to inter-community attitudes.

Phoenix explores the moral, philosophical and practical underpinnings for developing a more robust and confident centre ground capable of marginalising different ideological extremes.

This experimental action research project seeks to understand the impact of social media on attitudes and intolerance in Europe and explore the levers of change to allow these views to be tackled through social media channels.

Drawing on an existing body of work, ISD is developing an evaluation tool tailored to the specific needs of cohesion and integration projects and initiatives.