Cultural diversity as an aspect of "sustainability"

Team (in alphabetical order): Christaki Anastasia, Koumparelou Artemis, Paraskevopoulos Yannis, Pigaki Maria

Although the official European agendas promote multiculturalism and democracy, nowadays, European cities tend to be similar and unified under a monocultural and ambiguous approach to social integration and inclusion.

However, in contemporary global cities, different social groups strive to establish their culture and lifestyles in the new places they move to. Focusing on the city of Hamburg while also exploring examples from Athens and Madrid, we will attempt to understand the socio-economical contradictions and the fundamental need of social groups to (re)claim their identity. So, we begin our narrative from the perspective of how citizens transform into nomads* .

Cultural diversity is the quality of diverse or different cultures, as opposed to monoculture, the global monoculture, or a homogenization of cultures. It's a huge subject with different aspects that it includes race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, language, gender, age, disability & socioeconomic status‍.

 Let's start by asking the main questions:

• How visible are the different groups in the contemporary global city?
• How do they appropriate the places of the city?
• What is their footprint in the public realm?
• Finally, do they really have equal “right(s) to the city”?

Signs of cultural diversity are identified in three European cities: Madrid, Hamburg, and Athens.  The detection and composition of various integrating and segregating elements do not aim for a comparative analysis but to form parallel narratives that contribute to the dialogue about contemporary urban challenges and perspectives.

People migrate for many reasons, ranging from security, demography and human rights to poverty and climate change.

The total number of non-EU citizens residing within the EU as of 1 January 2021 was 23.7 million, according to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office. This represents 5.3% of the EU population. In most EU countries, the majority of non-nationals were from outside the EU (Source:  eurostat, 2022 )

Given the fact that sustainability is founded upon three interweaved dimensions: the social, the economic and the environmental, we understand cultural diversion and harmonious, equitable co-existence of different social and cultural groups as a central aspect of building sustainable urban futures.

• Against monoculture
• Global cities
• Spatial Justice & Equality
• Cognitive Development
• The three notions of Justice: Distribution / Procedure / Recognition

The collection and mapping of various city images demonstrate a pluralism of practices and human activities in the public space. The divergent ways of appropriating urban space and the new urban places that emerge accordingly create a mosaic.

The mapped elements fall under two parallel axes of analysis:

To understand these concepts, four factors shoud be taken into consideration: (1) accessibility, (2) inclusiveness, (3) visibility, and (4) use of the space (Mehta, 2014;  Madanipour, 2010 ).

The Image of the City is a 1960 book by American urban theorist Kevin Lynch. The book is the result of a five-year study of Boston, Jersey City and Los Angeles on how observers take in information of the city, and use it to make mental maps. Lynch's conclusion was that people formed mental maps of their surroundings consisting of five basic elements (Lynch, 1960).

Nodes: Large areas you can enter, serve as the foci of the city, neighbourhood, district, etc. Offers the person in them multiple perspectives of the other core elements

Paths: These are the streets, sidewalks, trails, canals, railroads, and other channels in which people travel. They arrange space and movement between space.

Districts: Medium to large areas that are two-dimensional. An individual enters into and out of these areas. Have common identifying characteristics

In view of the increasing mobility of people around the globe and the rampant urban growth, cultural diversity becomes a significant aspect of urban life. Against exclusionary and unfair policies, the co-presence of different cultures and a claim for “right to the city” for all comes to the fore.

Cadman, L., 2009. Nonrepresentational Theory/Nonrepresentational Geographies. In: KITCHEN, Rob and THRIFT, Nigel, (eds.) International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (1st ed). Oxford, Elsevier

Lefebvre H. ,1968. Le Droit à la ville [The right to the city] (2nd ed.). Paris, France: Anthropos.

Lynch, K., 2005. The image of the city, Nachdr. ed, Publication of the Joint Center for Urban Studies. MIT PRESS, Cambridge, Mass.

Thirft, N., 2007 Non-representational Theory: Spaces, Politics, Affects. Routledge & CRC Press.

Hillier, B., 1996/2007. Space is the Machine: A configurational theory of architecture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press