Are neighbours alike? Practices of conviviality in Catalonia and Casamance

Living together in neighbourhoods characterised by various aspects of diversity is central to the everyday life of Casamancais in both Catalonia, Spain, and Casamance, Senegal. Discursively, Casamancais speak about it similarly in both localities, construing co-residence on the neighbourhood scale as a sociality that builds on similar moral values such as relative equality, respect and consideration. At the same time, this sociality also implies negotiation, interaction and translation as central everyday practices. Investigating these practices reveals how they facilitate locally specific forms of neighbourliness. These practices are central to the suggested conceptualisation of conviviality as a process in which a fragile balance is maintained over the course of both cooperative and conflictual situations.