Diversity Management Among Small Shops in Barcelona: A Case of Community Intercultural Mediation

The setting up of small shops by foreign people involves a number of difficulties and challenges with respect to how it fits in certain districts. These issues have been tackled from the view of intercultural mediation. This kind of intervention focuses on relationships and communication among shopk...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mercé Zegrí, Josep M. Navarro, Míkel Aramburu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2009-08-01
Series:Psychosocial Intervention
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.copmadrid.org/webcopm/publicaciones/social/in2009v18n1a4.pdf
Description
Summary:The setting up of small shops by foreign people involves a number of difficulties and challenges with respect to how it fits in certain districts. These issues have been tackled from the view of intercultural mediation. This kind of intervention focuses on relationships and communication among shopkeepers by highlighting their common interests. Intervention also includes making associative networks acknowledge and adapt to new realities. This paper describes a process of intervention focused on community intercultural mediation carried out in small shops in a district of Barcelona. First, most significant results of the diagnosis stage are shown concerning the speech and relationships of main agents along with “conflict” analysis. Then a detailed mediation intervention is described that was carried out with a group of shopkeepers called “shop promoting group”. Finally, bearing in mind their high participative and transformational potential, some general appraisals are made with respect to the impact of this type of processes and their continuity and sustainability.
ISSN:1132-0559
2173-4712