The Post Suburban Metropolis: Western Sydney and the Importance of Public Space

Sydney, like all cities, is imagined in particular ways which derive from a specific sociocultural and historical context and which persist over time, even when social and economic changes render the dominant imaginary outmoded. How a city is imagined has distinct effects on how that city is planned and lived, and in this sense a mismatch between the dominant imaginary and the material reality of that place can have deleterious impacts. In this paper I want to make two interconnected arguments. First, I suggest that there are prevalent myths about Sydney that are no longer very helpful for understanding that city, and that these inhibit the potential and possibilities for creating liveable suburbs which have public spaces which meet a diversity of cultural needs at their core. These are the myths of the white picket fenced homogenous suburbs of the traditional Anglo-Australian nuclear family of a working man with his two kids and his wife predominantly engaged in domestic responsibilities. Second, I argue that public space can play a significant role in the contemporary multi-cultural city as a site where individuals can meet and encounter one another across their differences in productive ways.