Citizenship and Belonging in the Rural Fringe: A Case Study of a Hindu Temple in Sydney, Australia

Abstract

Despite Australian multicultural policy that asserts the right of all citizens to maintain and practice their religion, formal citizenship has not guaranteed the welcome or belonging of migrant religious groups at the neighbourhood scale. This is most starkly reflected in contests over the inclusion of minority religious spaces in the Australian landscape, which increasingly take place in the rural-urban fringe of metropolitan areas. This work examines the controversy over a proposed Hindu temple in metropolitan Sydney and reveals insights into the way that rural-urban fringe space is imagined, understood and experienced by land use planners, residents and temple members. Critical discourse analysis of policy documentation along with interviews reveals that land use planners circumscribe belonging in the landscape through the use of zoning ordinances and design controls, local residents mark the boundaries of white privilege through narratives of heritage and cultural difference and temple members claim rights to citizenship based on assertions of sameness.

TRANSLATION OF SOCIAL CITIZENSHIP TO ARCHITECTURE & BUILT ENVIRONMENT: A METHODOLOGICAL REVIEW

“…Usually, these immigrants are displaced and lurking at the edge of the city far away from local population. This is because of different backgrounds and way of life making them alienated by the society (Bugg, 2013). The scream for acceptance is always represented in the form of a building that is unique to their culture and background but exotic to the locals (Bugg, 2013).…”

“…This is because of different backgrounds and way of life making them alienated by the society (Bugg, 2013). The scream for acceptance is always represented in the form of a building that is unique to their culture and background but exotic to the locals (Bugg, 2013). This difference in the form of architecture is easily perceived by the locals as it is regarded as a unique trait in the urban settings that invokes curiosity to the locals.…”

“…The struggles of the immigrants in establishing a place that represents their culture and society while gaining approval from the locals are well represented in the concept of Social citizenship (Bugg, 2013). The phenomena of Social Citizenship can be viewed in cities with many immigrants such as in Birmingham, New York and Sydney.…”

The difference a wire makes: planning law, public Orthodox Judaism and urban space in Australia

“…In the local politics of diversity, however, these policies and laws are often toothless. Despite government direction, matters of religious diversity and multiculturalism more broadly remain only poorly implemented at the level of local planning and government (Bugg, 2013, p. 1152; Dunn et al , 2001). As David Knoll (2016, p. 12) notes, in the daily planning business, many councils avoid dealing with politically sensitive issues of religious diversity and instead pass the ball to the NSW Land and Environment Court after refusing a proposal in order to not be held accountable by their constituency, as also happened in St Ives.…”

Mobilising the welfare machine: Questioning the resurgent socialist concern in China’s Public Rental Housing Scheme

“…The graduated sovereignty thesis has inspired many studies on post-Westphalia citizenship. Studies in this strand of the literature have revealed how citizenship is now re-demarcated on many scales, such as provincial or municipal areas (Bhuyan & Smith-Carrier, 2012), special zones (Braier, 2013;Barker, 2010;Wang & Li, 2017), and neighbourhoods (Bugg, 2013;Teo, 2015).…”