Superdiversity and Urban Planning

Abstract Previous research exploring the relationship between diversity and urban planning has overwhelmingly focused on the multicultural city. In contrast, there has been much less focus to date on the challenges of increasing superdiversity for urban planning. The chapter initially highlights how superdiversity is leading to changes in the spatial distribution of migrants in the city and away from traditional thinking that there are just one or two large-scale concentrations of ethnic groups in urban areas. In fact, individuals with varying characteristics can be spread across the city, and more people from diverse backgrounds are living in the same areas than ever before as a consequence of all sorts of unpredictable migration flows. Such complexity presents increasing challenges for urban planners. The chapter evaluates key areas of research, focusing on the relationship between urban planning and issues of diversity. In turn, it sets out a number of themes that warrant further attention with respect to urban planning responses to increasing superdiversity, which extend beyond existing analyses. This includes a focus on the importance of settlement structures, strategies of spatial distribution for new migrant arrivals and social mixing, and the need to coproduce new urban planning strategies with local residents.