ABSTRACT
Semi-public franchised cafe spaces demand attention as elective leisure sites in which there are significant levels of locally-configured ethnic diversity, in contrast to their apparent homogeneity as corporate globalised non-spaces. This chapter explores ethnic diversity within the anonymity of corporate café space and focuses on the meanings of convivial multicultural social relations in particular localities. It begins by reflecting on the sociological thinking on corporate cafe spaces and the sociality they generate, before examining the micro-geographies of 'our' cafe spaces and their relationship to place. Primarily using data from a series of participant observations in three chain cafes in the project's different geographies, the chapter examines the contradiction of the ways in which situated corporate café space appears as multiculturally inclusive. It examines whether the co-presence of culturally different populations in Costa, McDonald's and Nando's reflects a disposition to civil inattention in semi-public multicultural sites of consumption and explores corporate café space as an emergent form of urban public space.
