Spaces of cross-cultural encounter

Abstract

<p>The landscape of cultural relations in Aotearoa is complex and entangled. While academics and policy makers imagine Aotearoa as a multicultural society, there is a lack of understanding of how cultural diversity is lived every day in Aotearoa. There is an emerging literature on the geographies of encounter. This encourages us to address the historical predicament of how we are to live together in increasingly super diverse communities by considering the existing everyday negotiations of difference. This thesis contributes to that literature by undertaking a case study of Newtown, Wellington, in order to: 1) understand where Newtown residents and employees experience cross-cultural social interactions; and 2) what type of places help encourage positive cross-cultural interactions. Through this I explore how cross-cultural encounters and exchanges might be encouraged. Q-methodology was used to investigate locations of cross-cultural social interactions, I conducted and analysed 23 Q-sorts with Newtown, Wellington residents and local employees. I argue that places of cross-cultural encounter take many forms. The identification of these places is closely linked to participants’ characteristics, such as socioeconomic position, and age. The participants in this study represent diverse Newtown. They have diverse socialising practices and identify a wide range of positive places for cross-cultural interactions. In conjunction with this people understand and experience encounters with cultural diversity differently. I argue that an encounter across cultural difference is not limited to an explicit interaction but can also be through the sharing of space and engagement in similar activities. I also argue for the importance of space in cross-cultural encounters; certain spatial and material qualities of spaces appear to animate cross-cultural social interaction. This research argues that: engagement in cross-cultural interactions is often mediated by other identifiers, that everyday multiculturalism is demographically complex, and that the materiality and spatially of spaces is effectual in animating these interactions.</p>