The Intercultural City: Planning for Diversity Advantage

In a world where individuals are increasingly mobile, how people originating from different cultures live together is one of the key issues of the 21st century. There is a growing need for new thinking on how diverse communities can live together in productive harmony and not in parallel and separate lives. Policy is often dominated by mitigating the perceived negative effects of diversity (complexity, loss of cohesion, exploitation and racism) but little thought has been given to how a diversity dividend or increased innovative capacity might be achieved. The Intercultural City analyzes the relationship of urban policy to policies on cultural diversity, principally in the UK but also drawing upon original research in North America, Europe and Australasia. It includes a review of the literature in the field, and a critique of past and current policy, before introducing new theoretical concepts. It provides significant and practical advice for the reader, with new insights and tools for practitioners including the “intercultural lens”, “indicators of openness” and “urban cultural literacy”.