"Where in the world is 'Western Sydney'?" How identities and boundaries can shape urban inequality and segregation: an empirical experiment

Abstract

In Greater Sydney, Australia’s largest urban region, ‘Western Sydney’ as a spatial imaginary is shorthand for the ‘other’ part of the city – its working class, multicultural and multilingual populations, industrial-based economies, and high levels of socio-economic disadvantage - but where exactly is it?

This project investigates relationships between boundaries, urban inequality and segregation in the spatial imaginary of’ Western Sydney’ and its various boundaries to examine the extent they shape or reflect spatial inequalities in cities, what differences between boundaries formed by institutions and residents mean, and how conflicts between boundaries are reflected in questions of regional identity.