ABSTRACT
As heterogeneity becomes the new ordinary, what Wessendorf describes as 'commonplace diversity', the ways in which it shapes and affects every day social relations, interactions and urban liveability become central to understanding successful modes of co-existence, the collective sharing of, or conflict over, social resources, as well as the possibility of building social connection and belonging. This chapter charts some of the ways in which this habituation and routine management of cultural difference has been conceptualised and researched. The unevenness of processes and practices of engagement with difference is reflected in the clashes in the concepts around which the debates are framed. The shrinking of the focus of convivial inquiry to the small scale and more individualised experiences of difference have added to a concern that structural forces and social divisions, particularly race and racism, were being marginalised within these newer debates.
