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03/07/2009The intercultural city: Planning for diversity advantage

The intercultural city: Planning for diversity advantage New research from the UK presents new solutions and ideas for how cities and people of different cultures can live in harmony.

Who wants to read about urban theory? No one? Well it would hardly be surprising since it is something of an academic subject. Perhaps losing yourself for hours playing God in an addictive city-building simulation game like SimCity might be more attractive.

However, I would argue that everyone has an opinion about urban theory because most of us have to live or work in cities. Indeed in Europe three-quarters of the population live in urban areas, and migration has added to those numbers. People are significantly more mobile today than ever before and so our cities are more culturally and racially diverse. Do you still not have an opinion on urban theory?

Enter stage left: The Intercultural city: Planning for diversity advantage is a book published in 2007 by authors Charles Landry and Phil Wood that looks like it will inspire city policy-makers of the future.


Key issues of the twenty-first century considered in the book include how to deal with the increasing mobility of people and how different cultures can live happily side-by-side and not isolation. According to COMEDIA, a research portal for urban policy, The Intercultural City attempts to answer these questions and explores the relationship of urban policy and policies on cultural diversity.

In an article in the Guardian newspaper entitled ‘Intercultural innovation’, one of the authors Phil Wood argues that “the current debate around cultural diversity seems to be dominated by those concerned with its costs whilst many of the arguments in support of its benefits seem a little tired and dated".

He continues: “The questioning of the prevailing creed of ‘multiculturalism’ by Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, has opened up a valuable space for fresh thinking and it is into this that we have launched The Intercultural City.”

Wood blames the policies of multiculturalism for unintentionally creating “institutionalised separation based at best on benign indifference.” He writes: “We argue for a system which recognises an emerging reality of people with mixed cultures and heritage, and which incentivises cultural interchange.”

A book such as this must be a godsend for policy-makers in need of some inspiration. Alderman Orhan Kaya, vice-mayor of Rotterdam, one of Europe’s most diverse cities, describes the book as a “fantastic achievement” and believes that “the authors arrive at a number of practical recommendations that can be used by town councils.”

That aside, the authors are also quite candid about the way forward: “Make no mistake, if the intercultural city is to be made reality, conflict isn’t just a risk – it’s a certainty. The skill in being intercultural is in riding the wave of dissonance, managing conflict and having the foresight and courage to grasp the prize at the end of it.”

What is the prize they speak of? In their words, “many of the world’s best ideas – indeed some of its greatest civilisations – have emerged from the encounter, clash and then resolution of differing cultures and mindsets.”

The book is available from:

(I will find the details of Expatica’s Amazon bookstore and send the link to Paul)

The Intercultural City: Planning for diversity advantage.
P. Wood and C. Landry. Earthscan, 2007.
ISBN 978 18440 7436 5 £24•95, 384pp.

Peter Orange/Editor Expatica UK


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