Post 7

Pluralistic Planning for Multicultural Cities

Mohammad A. Qadeer

We see in this week the reading focuses on Vancouver, Canada as the case study of multiculturalism as it is an example that confirms how different peoples can coexist harmoniously. In observing Vancouver it can be compared to an Australian context of Sydney and Melbourne. Although from the reading it highlights what the Australian society could improve on in terms of its attitudes towards multiculturalism.

 I thought that the city of Vancouver must have a larger population than Sydney to have the facilities that it provides for its citizens. I was surprised to find that Vancouver has a population of approximately 600 000 which is smaller than Sydney of 4.5 million. My initial thought was how can Sydney cater to all peoples as it is a small city relative to the world scale? As shown Vancouver is able to provide for cultural diversity with a smaller population. Although Vancouver is smaller than Sydney the overall population of Canada is approximately 35 million and Australia is approximately 22 million. Therefore Canada has greater resources overall to allocate towards a more inclusive society. I think that as Canada has developed this multicultural society over time it has become more effortless to maintain than it is for the Australian society to make a real start towards this issue.

As an Australian society we the general public are consistently hearing that we are a multicultural society, but are we really that inclusive? The word is used frequently by politicians as no one wants to be politically correct, but is it just used to for the sake of political correctness?

Planning for a multicultural society is a fantastic concept in an ideal world, but as we do not live in an ideal world we cannot possibly cater to all in society. I guess the difference between a narrow minded planner and a well rounded planner is the one who attempts to serve all members of the society as best they can.