Introduction

Europe is a melting pot, characterised by a rich cultural heritage and currently becoming increasingly diverse through immigration. At the same time, it is divided by deep socioeconomic inequalities. Increasing diversity and rising inequality seem to go hand in hand. This chapter tries to disentangle the complex relationship of diversity and inequality and how they play out in local social innovation initiatives. On the one hand, reducing inequality in its multiple dimensions is seen as a key structural factor for reducing poverty, on the other hand, recognising the increasing diversity of needs is perceived as crucial for combating poverty in its multidimensionality, covering material and cultural aspects (see Chapter 1 and Ghys, 2018). We start from a broad understanding of culture (Eagleton, 2000; Sum and Jessop, 2013) and problematise the narrow definitions of inequality and diversity in policy making. The challenge consists in exploring whether social innovation initiatives are able to reduce inequality while respecting diversity.

The second section of this chapter exposes cultural hierarchies as a key cause of poverty. A historical overview will identify various policies that have aimed at negotiating diversity and equality in Europe. The terms diversity and equality are often used to deal with different realities. While policies to foster diversity are in general reduced to non-economic issues like age and gender and in the field of combating poverty increasingly to ethnicity, policies to promote equality tend to focus on socioeconomic dimensions, be it equal opportunities in the labour market or access to money and social services.

The third section will use empirical insights from the ImPRovE case studies to problematise how the cultural and socioeconomic dimensions of poverty and social exclusion are addressed. What is the role of culture in social innovation initiatives? How is ethnic diversity dealt with in the initiatives? How do actors in socially innovative initiatives make sense of the complex articulations of inequality and diversity? How can intercultural learning and other cultural policies be related to attempts to effectively combat poverty? We will not propose a one-size-fits-all frame to understand how to negotiate cultural diversity and socioeconomic equality, but make a plea for context-sensitive solutions that take cultural and socioeconomic hierarchies seriously. Special attention will be paid to ImPRovE case study initiatives that have the Roma population as the target group.