Mapping Social Cohesion and Identity in Intercultural Public Spaces: The Case of Germantown

ABSTRACT

Across the world, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has challenged urban systems and structures, highlighting societal vulnerabilities within cities, and uncovering systemic inequalities among their communities. At the same time, the measures enacted in response to the pandemic revealed the important role of social interactions and cohesion in supporting resilient communities during challenging times. We know that strong social ties among various communities, particularly in intercultural cities can promote civic engagement and participation. However we do not know enough about the mechanisms, processes, places, and tools that create these social ties. We need more insight on how people create opportunities for equitable planning and recovery from unexpected and potentially catastrophic events. This chapter examines the role of urban public space in developing and maintaining social ties, focusing on intercultural communities during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Our focus on interculturalism is influenced by Levrau and Loobyuck's (2018) definition, which gives special attention to the contact between people of different backgrounds and shared community memberships. Interculturalism creates a new paradigm based on the idea of interpersonal contact as a tool to create a stronger sense of societal belonging. To this end, we pose the following question can social interactions, identity, and cohesion in public spaces be mapped spatially as a means to document and identify community resilience in the intercultural urban context? This will help us understand how public spaces support the people and communities around them, as places of gathering, well-being, and civic expression. This work will shed light on the role of public space in developing and maintaining strong social ties in intercultural communities at the neighborhood level. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.