Planning for social inclusion in a multicultural urban South East Queensland

Abstract

South East Queensland is projected to grow by an estimated 1.3 million people over the next 20 years. To date, much of the debate on how best to respond to this unprecedented rate of growth has focused attention on the need to provide better infrastructure, more housing and to sustain and protect ecosystems and habitats. Less attention has been paid to the human dimensions of growth, and how the needs of an increasingly diverse population are to be met – including planning for a more multicultural urban future. Utilising a social inclusion framework this article explores the challenges for planning where nearly half of South East Queensland's growth results from overseas migration. In providing a case study of Moorooka, Brisbane, we argue that the sustainability and liveability of a more urban South East Queensland depends greatly on the creation of a socially inclusive and progressive environment. This will inevitably involve renewing the very practices of planning itself.

Keywords:

• social inclusion
• community planning
• multicultural cities
• South East Queensland

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the insightful comments of the anonymous referees who reviewed an earlier version of this paper.

Notes

1. Social Integration was also a key theme at the 48th session of the Commission for Social Development, held in New York, 3–12 February 2010.

2. This case study has been developed from the research-practice work of one of the authors.

3. Between 1996 and February 2007, 4016 African refugees from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Sudan made South East Queensland their home. Many were initially housed in Moorooka, which acted as a low cost housing option in Brisbane's inner south (Harte et al., 2009, pp. 52–54). Care should be taken with census data however, as migrant communities have not been well tracked and recorded in Australia.

4. For example, the Queensland Government's Department of Communities provides a very comprehensive set of policies and support strategies for African communities (Department of Communities, 2008). Yet these tend to frame such groups as ‘target’ communities for policy – possibly to the exclusion of surrounding communities and wider relationships.