Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to address a question of how NGOs and policy makers work with women in intercultural cities and how anthropological tools are used in this context. A Catalonian case is discussed as an example.

Paper long abstract:

The increase of diversity in contemporary cities has led to the emergence of a new kind of city: an intercultural city. According to the Council of Europe, the intercultural city uses diversity as a source of dynamism, innovation, creativity and growth, enabling people from different backgrounds to mix with each other, exchange ideas and interact. However, beyond such conceptualisation, a question that must be addressed is what concrete steps can be taken in order to build an intercultural city. In this paper, this is considered through an investigation of programs which work with women in so defined intercultural cities.

In the project discussed in this paper, six Catalonian cities defining themselves as intercultural have been selected and their intercultural programs studied. The results were supplemented by the interviews with managers and policy makers, who were able to shed light on issues which could not be sufficiently understood via the programs analysis. Finally, a series of indicators taking into account different variables were considered in order to establish what kinds of programs can be viable in the project of building an intercultural city working with women.