Editorial: Rethinking Urban Diversity

Abstract

With their socio-physical, socio-economic, sociocultural, and sociopolitical presence cities have always been highly differentiated spaces expressive of heterogeneity, diversity of activities, entertainment, excitement, and pleasure. They have been (and still are) melting pots for the formulation of and experimentation with new philosophies and religious and social practices. They produce, reproduce, represent, and convey much of what counts today as culture, knowledge, and politics. Urban spaces within cities are no exception; they are places for the pursuit of freedom, un-oppressed activities and desires, but also ones characterized by systematic power, oppression, domination, exclusion, and segregation. In dealing with these polar qualities diversity has become one of the new doctrines of city planners, urban designers, and architects. It continues to be at the center of recent urban debates. Little is known, however, on how urban space diversity can be achieved.

Citation

Salama, A.M. and Thierstein, A. (2012), "Editorial: Rethinking Urban Diversity", Open House International, Vol. 37 No. 2, pp. 4-5. https://doi.org/10.1108/OHI-02-2012-B0001