"We are achieving this… Eliminating the violence and making us all Friends”. The power of friendships to generate peaceful coexistence in Sant Roc (Badalona)

Identifier:  imarina:9230890

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/imarina9230890

Authors:  Beatriz Villarejo-Carballido; Carme García Yeste; Mimar Ramis‐Salas; Laura Ruiz-Eugenio

Abstract:
This article analyses the contribution of friendship between members of different cultures to improving peaceful coexistence in a vulnerable neighbourhood. Specifically, it analyses the personal friendship between Said, a member of the Pakistani community, and Tio Antonio, a member of the Roma community, as a turning point in improving the coexistence in a neighbourhood which had been experiencing conflictive situations and clashes between the residents for years, especially between the Roma and the Pakistani communities. This friendship has played a mediating role and served as an example for other friendships between members of the two communities, leading to the creation of a joined organization. This analysis contributes to the existing literature, where the role of personal friendship in the transformation of conflictive intercultural relations into peaceful, constructive ones has barely been explored.