Methods & Timeline

Empirical research sharing platform

This section gathers the empirical research produced by the ICEC consortium across three European case study cities. Results will be shared here as the project advances, supporting comparison between neighbourhood-level policy approaches.

Urban Living Labs

Urban Living Labs form a key component of the ICEC methodological approach, enabling situated inquiry within the Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Vienna case study neighbourhoods and feeding into cross-city analysis.

The timeline page documents the sequence of project phases and key milestones, from kick-off through to the closing conference.

View Timeline Publications

Project Frame

ICEC is linked to JPI – Urban Europe and brings together partners in Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Vienna.

About the project →

Research into interethnic coexistence within European neighbourhoods benefits from methods that can move fluidly between fine-grained local observation and wider comparative framing. The ICEC project draws on this dual orientation, treating each city as both a distinct case and a node within a broader European conversation about diversity, belonging, and shared public space. By anchoring inquiry in situated, neighbourhood-level realities, the consortium aims to produce insights that are at once locally grounded and transferable across different urban contexts facing similar challenges of coexistence and social cohesion.

Urban Living Labs sit at the heart of this methodological strategy, offering embedded sites where researchers, residents, local stakeholders, and policy actors can experiment with, reflect on, and refine neighbourhood-level initiatives. Within the selected districts of Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Vienna, these labs function as living testbeds for observation, dialogue, and co-production of knowledge. Their value lies in bridging everyday experience with academic analysis, ensuring that the project’s findings remain responsive to the lived realities of the communities whose coexistence is being studied.

A consistent timeline structures the project’s progression, guiding the consortium through coordinated phases of fieldwork, comparative analysis, and dissemination. This sequencing allows methodological choices in one phase to inform and reshape the next, supporting a reflexive research process rather than a linear pipeline. By documenting this trajectory openly, the project invites peers and practitioners to follow the rhythm of inquiry and to engage with interim findings as the cross-city comparisons gradually take shape.

Comparative analysis provides the connective tissue across the three case studies, enabling patterns of policy response, social mixing, and neighbourhood change to be read side by side. Rather than treating cities in isolation, the methodology foregrounds contrasts and convergences in how local authorities, civil society actors, and residents negotiate diversity. Through this lens, neighbourhood-level measures become entry points into wider questions about urban governance, social cohesion, and the conditions under which interethnic coexistence can flourish.

Methodological approach at a glance

Comparative and applied analysis of neighbourhood-related policies.
Urban Living Labs situated within selected case study neighbourhoods.
Cross-city sharing of empirical findings among the three city teams.
Coordination with JPI – Urban Europe as the project's wider frame.

Project timeline

The timeline records major milestones, from kick-off in November 2013 through the final conference in May 2017, including baseline study publications and newsletter releases.

Key milestones

Project Kick Off — November 2013.
ICEC Baseline Studies made available online — October 2014.
Regular newsletters published through the project duration.
ICEC Final Conference — May 2017.

See full timeline →