Hope and Belonging in a Multicultural Suburb

In this paper I explore the complex nature of multiculturalism as place-sharing, of cross-cultural interaction, or multiculturalism of inhabitance. I investigate, in particular, the struggles over and potentials for a sense of hopefulness and belonging in a culturally diverse suburb shared by more than one ethnic group. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the Sydney suburb of Ashfield, I present a series of ethnographic vignettes that represent what I term ‘hopeful intercultural encounters’. I theorise these in terms of Simmel's notion of gratitude, and Hage's notion of ‘hope on the side of life’ as a means of reflecting on the social possibilities for new forms of integration in culturally diverse localities.