SITUATIONAL PLACES: RETHINKING GEOGRAPHIES OF INTERCULTURAL INTERACTION IN SUPER-DIVERSE URBAN SPACE

Cities in general and public urban spaces in particular have re-emerged as important places where strangers from different social and cultural backgrounds interact. The growing number of intercultural encounters assumed by contemporary urban studies calls for a theoretical examination of how these encounters are conducted. In this article we therefore critically examine the interplay between cultures, strangers, performances, encounters, and urban built environments. This means bringing together the theoretical ideas of super-diversity, culture in world society, and situational places. The article argues that intercultural interactions between strangers in cities - and elsewhere - shape the cultural conditions of contemporary world society. First, super-diversity is discussed as a cultural reality of world society. Drawing on empirical evidence from psychology, intercultural interactions between strangers are then demonstrated to be part of ritualized cultural negotiations. Finally, the notion of situational places is put forward as the conceptual nexus between these cultural encounters and the urban environment. This perspective allows the integration of bodily performances between strangers, spatial and situational context, and the resulting places of encounter.