Cosmopolitan Place Making in Australia

Abstract

This book looks at the historical and contemporary impact of minority immigrant and ethnic communities on the built and social environment in Australian cities, rural and regional areas. The emphasis is on the changing social use of these buildings – places of worship, ethnic clubs and community associations, immigrant restaurants and retail outlets, museums, memorials and landmarks and other places and spaces created by immigrant communities – rather than on their architectural merit. These places and spaces are sites of bridging and bonding social capital, of social interaction between immigrant communities and their local communities. In both the Australian cities and the ‘bush’ (an Australian colloquial term for non-metropolitan dwellers), the book investigates how the places built and used by minority ethnic communities have transformed Australian life in complex and sometimes contradictory ways. In Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, the book investigates the historical development of Chinatowns and their contemporary dynamics.