Hybrid Ethnicity in the Urban Built Environment

Abstract
The interface of one ethnicity with another has always resulted in an exchange of ideologies, lifestyles and architecture (Wood, 2008). This phenomenon is an integral part of history and ethnic landscapes were and are part and parcel of the urban environment (Krase, 2002). Today, this exchange of ethnic identities is associated with globalization and migration in an urban scenario. This research explores ethnic expression and inhabitation in the northeast neighbourhoods of Calgary and the impact of this on people, their perceptions and experiences of the built environment, and on city planning and policies. The built environment of northeast Calgary is compared to the parameters of interculturalism, evaluating the area for evidence of intercultural place making. The immigrant populated northeast neighbourhoods of Falconridge, Castleridge, Taradale, Martindale, Coral Springs and Saddle Ridge are explored in this study. The enquiry is done through detailed qualitative interviews and cognitive mapping exercises with residents of the neighbourhoods, out of which a set of themes are derived and discussed. The principles of interculturalism are compared to the social and physical environment of these neighbourhoods. The evaluation reveals themes favourable to both ethnic clustering and intercultural placemaking. Multicultural experiences of residents of the northeast neighbourhoods are evaluated in their international and Canadian context. Based on this analysis, recommendations are provided for revised policies and urban planning practices to be reviewed to accommodate the hybrid intercultural urban environment of today’s Canadian cities with participatory planning as a fundamental tool in consultation processes.
Description
Keywords
interculturalism, intercultural urbanism, ethnic hybridity, ethnic group, canadian neighbourhood, collingwood, assimilation, multiculturalism, intercultural model, sandercock
Citation
Hassonjee, T. I. (2018). Hybrid Ethnicity in the Urban Built Environment (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/32342