ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how ethnic diversity is engaged with in the (re)inscription of public space as part of the wider project of urban regeneration. Ethnic diversity has been variously interpreted as a problem challenging the cohesion of the city and as a resource capable, through its celebration, of fostering the promotion of the city. More critically, how diversity has influenced the (re)making of public spaces needs to be understood in terms of its engagement with the politics of recognition and encounter. Based on examples drawn principally from the recent regeneration of Glasgow it is shown how ethnic diversity has been used to promote place, can engage explicitly with the politics of identity but is more problematic in being able to foster inter-ethnic understanding. The dark side of diversity – its ability to rekindle inter-ethnic conflict – runs counter to the project of urban imagineering, but demonstrates the contradictions potentially arising from ethnic diversity.
