Understanding how people from different cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds coexist and interact has become crucially important with global migration. Whilst ethnic divisions in the residential organisation of cities have been central topics in previous research on segregation, much less is known about the informal, ‘grassroot level’ patterns of segregation that persist in the relations and spaces of people’s everyday lives.
The current project will produce novel information about the physical, social, and psychological contexts of intergroup contact in Helsinki; about what people do together and apart, how they describe their experiences of contact and the use of city space. Thus, this research aims to provide, for the first time, a comprehensive, multidisciplinary account of micro-level intergroup contact in the Nordic context. The project examines multiple groups, including first- and second-generation Finns, as well as considering inviduals' intersecting identities and positions along the lines of ethnicity, gender and age.
The project consists of four substudies: field observations of microecological patterns of segregation in public spaces in the Helsinki metropolitan region, a survey among ethnic majority and minority members mapping for instance attitudes towards immigration, prejudice, prior contact and perceived discrimination, experience sampling (ESM), documenting the immediate emotions and behaviours during social interactions and walking interviews, exploring the relationship between self and space in people’s everyday experiences of microecological segregation and/or contact.
The project is funded by the Academy of Finland (2024–2028, decision 360107) and situated at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki.