In summer 2015, central urban spaces were transformed upon the arrival of thousands of refugees in European cities. The presence of that many refugees led in many cases to an overstrain of the governmental infrastructure and to moments of interruption where locals felt the need to step in, fill the gaps and started organizing the welcome of the refugees. New civil society organizations emerged spontaneously, organizing space, mobilizing volunteers, cooperating with established NGOs and negotiating with city and state authorities. The involvement of a large number of people at a space pursuing distinct intentions and ideas of how and by whom the space should be organized cultivates a ground of conflict amongst different actors at various levels. These conflicts are power struggles over space and the ordering of it. Consequently, they bear a great potential for the ‘political’ in the sense of Jacques Rancière, as a mode of interruption and moments when an order is challenged. This thesis elaborates on two spaces of arrival in August/September 2015: the Park Maximilian in Brussels with the emerged Plateforme citoyenne de soutien aux réfugiés Bruxelles Parc Maximilien and the Central Train Station in Vienna with its organization Train of Hope. Through semi-structured interviews struggles and conflicts are identified to elaborate on why this interruption can be understood as a political moment.

In summer 2015, central urban spaces were transformed upon the arrival of thousands of refugees in European cities. The presence of that many refugees led in many cases to an overstrain of the governmental infrastructure and to moments of interruption where locals felt the need to step in, fill the gaps and started organizing the welcome of the refugees. New civil society organizations emerged spontaneously, organizing space, mobilizing volunteers, cooperating with established NGOs and negotiating with city and state authorities. The involvement of a large number of people at a space pursuing distinct intentions and ideas of how and by whom the space should be organized cultivates a ground of conflict amongst different actors at various levels. These conflicts are power struggles over space and the ordering of it. Consequently, they bear a great potential for the ‘political’ in the sense of Jacques Rancière, as a mode of interruption and moments when an order is challenged. This thesis elaborates on two spaces of arrival in August/September 2015: the Park Maximilian in Brussels with the emerged Plateforme citoyenne de soutien aux réfugiés Bruxelles Parc Maximilien and the Central Train Station in Vienna with its organization Train of Hope. Through semi-structured interviews struggles and conflicts are identified to elaborate on why this interruption can be understood as a political moment.