engleski

Local melange in a global world: From transferred Southern European lifestyles to translational Sydney streets

The dynamics of diversity in the era of globalisation is analysed with the observations made in three distinctive commercial streets in two neighbouring inner Sydney local government areas. The landscape of these streets is impacted by the heterogenous cultural forces as a consequence of a dynamic migration process over the last sixty years. The people, public and private edifices, shops, signage, food, beverages, arts and media identify dynamics of the process of diversity embedded in streets representative of the earlier migration waves. Cultures transferred by the time divided migration waves meet in these streets creating their specific images. These localised developments identify migration patterns, changes in urban demography and culture, evolution of migration and cultural policies, and communication revolution. Different images tell about the past developments, hopes, difficulties, aspirations, but also generate a discourse on the future in a world defined by global proximities. Re-territorialised cultures germinate new life patterns in what was until recently an unwelcoming environment. Through local life experiences, transferred cultures appropriate new roots and a home in a foreign social environment framing a transnational social space. The process of a mutuality generated across spatial distances has ramifications beyond the immediate local government areas and the historical period. Transferred cultures embedded in new localities are as much representative of migrant transnational lives, as of a local social and commercial development through the diversification process. Shops, restaurants and other culturally defined places identify not only their cultural origin, but also the time of settlement and local development. These newly created communication nodes, localities, appropriate new dimensions and significance in a globalised world as they bring together diverse cultures. These visible symbols of diversity are representative of the post-war Greek, Italian and Portuguese migrant contribution to the creation of diversified urban and global social spaces, as well as of the local social changes. Today, representatives of diverse cultures from the Middle East, Asia and Latin America find their niche in these localities. Everyday dynamic exchange expressed in diverse forms identifies stages of evolving diversity starting from the arrival of migrants and culture transfer and consumption, across the issues of marginalisation, embeddedness, fragmentation, succession, to that of sustainability. Through this process the Australian social and Sydney urban morphology altered, grounding new opportunities and aspirations that inevitably differ between localities, cultures, and cities. In these inner suburban streets identified by their own culturally diverse identities, goods and services are consumed by co-ethnics and the broader community, and, although these streets are not the prime tourist sites of this most visited Australian city, by visitors also. This contribution identifies the dynamics of this process with different examples sourced from migrant communal and commercial involvement and policy measures in a society that embarked on this process in the late 1940s with expectations that diverged from the outcome. Networks embedded in these localities frame communication flows within a transnational social space, but the generated patterns are being challenged by intergenerational changes and the expanding cultural interaction. This process is illustrated with examples of everyday life experiences identified by diverse forms of public space usage, including communal and commercial activities, art and media production, festivals, street festivities, local policy measures. These vigorous activities identify the reach and the social significance of these Sydney transnational streets, clearly identified by their own specific culturally diverse images in a global city.

cultural diversity; symbols; dynamics; migrants; transnational space

nije evidentirano