Cultural diversity and consumption spaces in and about Bankstown, Sydney

Abstract

While geographical and planning literature has traditionally adopted a macro-scale focus when studying cultural diversity, in recent years this has been supplemented by an emerging concern for 'everyday multiculturalism', including more fine-grained analyses of lived experiences of multiculturalism in places such as shopping strips, gyms and community gardens. Although these micro-scale studies recognise that relationships between socialities and spatialities are important, the more specific role of built form in framing these relationships is not much explored. With a view to extending this literature, the current paper examines how intercultural encounters in public space are influenced by built form in selected activity centres in Western Sydney. Drawing on multi-layered maps of key built-form features, the particular focus of this paper is to understand the ways in which different ethnic groups express themselves through built form in selected activity centres around the regional centre of multicultural Bankstown, Sydney.