The social landscape of most of the European cities is rapidly changing from single to multiple cultural communities under the influence of globalisation and human movement. Such a rapid change has moved the concept of singularity from the many discourses on the socio-cultural, economic and physical aspect of the city to a more complex cross-cultural dialogue. On the socio-cultural dimension, the subject of social cohesion and social inclusion has become an important issue concerning many cities. In the main, these issues have been analysed through social, economic and political science perspectives. The influence of the built environment as an important factor in determining cultural and ethical identity has been inadequately addressed. The paper reviews selected theoretical concepts to verify the exact meaning of culture, cultural identity, social space and social spatiality in the context of different ethnic societies. These issues are then examined in the context of Muslim ethnic neighbourhoods in Birmingham to find out how these cultural factors can contribute to the integration or segregation of its society? The paper concludes how the understanding of cultural norms can contribute to the development of an alternative approach for planning and regeneration practice.

The social landscape of most of the European cities is rapidly changing from a single to the multiple cultural communities under the influence of globalisation and human movement. Such a rapid change has moved the concept of singularity from the many discourses on the socio-cultural, economic and physical aspect of the city to a more complex cross-cultural dialogue. On the socio-cultural dimension, the subject of social cohesion and social inclusion where different social and ethnic groups can live together to form a larger urban community yet retain their cultural identity has become an important issue that concerns many cities. In the main, these issues have been analysed using social, economic and political science perspectives. The influence of the built environment as an important factor in determining cultural and ethical identity has been inadequately addressed The paper reviews selected theoretical concepts to verify the exact meaning of culture, cultural identity, social space and social spatiality in the context of ethnic societies. These issues are then examined in the Muslim ethnic neighbourhoods in Birmingham to find out to what extent the urban character of their neighbourhoods represents their cultural identity. The paper concludes how the understanding of cultural norms can contribute to the development of an alternative approach for planning and regeneration practice.

Acknowledging and sustaining the ethnic and cultural diversity that the phenomenon of globalization has brought to the urban environment is one of the target objectives to seek spatial and social sustainability in today’s cities. This study aims to build upon previous research approaches that sought to characterize culturally diverse, urban public spaces. For this purpose, a method that encompasses digital and physical layers of information has been proposed to gather signs of culturally diverse, street-level urban and economic activities. Geolocated data from three social media platforms, as well as field-work observations, were collected from two case study street segments with different socio-cultural, demographic profiles. The findings suggest that economic activities related to retail and restaurants, and especially those with higher levels of personalization that reflect “cultural specialisms”, have a significative relevance in both the physical and virtual domains. However, unlike the case study area with the higher socio-economic profile, the urban vibrancy observed through field work throughout the more culturally diverse street segment was not found to be fully represented by social media data. There is still much room for research on the extent to which these sources are useful for characterizing fine-grain street-scale phenomena.

The urban landscape of traditional cites was the product of its culture representing its historical and sociocultural characteristics. These diverse urban landscapes of cities around the world have been transformed over the past four decades into what is referred to as an international style for economic purpose. While this transformation increases the potential of the city entering into the world market, promoting economic growth, social development and modernization, at the same time it causes social polarization, inequality and in most cases losing its traditional urban character. The critical questions arise in this realization are: what are the influences of this transformation on the urban identity of cities? And, what impacts that would have on social life? The paper discusses the above questions through the case study of Amman City. It explores factors contributed to the historical formation of the urban identity of Amman, its transformation since the Post-World War II, and finally, presents a critique on the rapid transformation over the last three decades and its impact on the socio-cultural environment of the city.