Overlapping Ethnicities and Negotiated Space: Atlanta's Buford Highway

Abstract

The unique intermingling of numerous businesses reflecting varied ethnic affiliations along Buford Highway in Metro Atlanta offers a case study combining cultural, social, and urban geography. Studies of ethnic retail concentrations generally locus on one particular group; the Buford Corridor offers a strikingly linear picture of coevolving interwoven multiethnic retail and residential spaces. This research examines the built environment for evidence of population succession and entrepreneurial cultural adaptation strategies in which different groups are over- and underrepresented in relation to their regional presence. Explanatory factors proposed include the types of immigrants, timing of arrival in Atlanta, and host society absorptive capacity as epitomized by key individuals and organizations. The predominance of ethnic Chinese from a variety of countries is noted, as well as a secondary migration How leaving California for better job opportunities elsewhere. An ethnic bipolar labor market enhances assimilation and interweaving of different skill and resource levels in the same ethnic establishments and shopping areas.