University for Continuing Education Krems Arenas of conflict? How local integration infrastructures and multi-level dynamics shape the space for conflict and cooperation at the local level in Austria The 2015 ‘migration and refugee crisis’ had a major impact on national level politics, media and policy debates in Austria. This article explores how the conflictual politics of refugee reception and integration evident at the national level are articulated at the local level, focusing on changes in integration governance arrangements and multi-level dynamics in four Austrian municipalities, two towns and two smaller rural municipalities in the provinces Tyrol and Lower Austria. Leadership exercised by local government leaders and pro-migrant civil society organisations reduced the local space for conflict and opposition to migration. Key differences between the urban and rural cases derive from differences in their territorial, political, and administrative set-up and related differences in the role of civil society, the presence, or absence of municipal integration infrastructures and the nature of horizontal networks, particularly on a sub-provincial, regional level. Vertical relationships to higher levels of government varied along several dimensions. en TEXT journal article Wissenschaftlicher Artikel Articolo di rivista Testo Articolo di rivista Text journal article Text Wissenschaftlicher Artikel integration migration conflict cooperation local integration infrastructures Austria multi-level governance 2025-12-10 2025-12-10 Albert Kraler Isabella Skrivanek Taylor & Francis