Encouraging Cultural Diversity and Sense of Community in Aotearoa New Zealand: Community Participation Processes in Public Open Space Planning

In the island nation of Aotearoa New Zealand, the history of migration and increased globalization is exerting pressure on existing social and cultural frameworks and creating challenges and opportunities for how public open space can be created and used. This pressure is influencing Māori, the Indigenous people of New Zealand, through a combination of cultural beliefs and values, with a diverse set of contemporary cultural practices and through interactions with a non-Māori world. The challenges are from the progressively widespread nature of migrants who have multiple national backgrounds and also consider themselves as both members of their country of origin and New Zealand society. To accommodate this increasing cultural diversity, a psychological sense of community provides a tool for understanding community and community change, while participatory planning can provide opportunities to integrate public perspectives into these processes. Public open spaces have the potential to be socially sustainable and promote values of cultural diversity. This research aims to understand whether taking part in the community participation processes for public open space planning and design can encourage a sense of community amongst the major ethnic groups in New Zealand, including New Zealand European, Māori, Chinese and Pasifika. It does that by adopting the lens of the Sense of Community Index based on the theory presented by McMillan and Chavis. Results suggest that participatory planning allows the integration of public perspectives into the planning process, fostering the communities’ sense of place while creating places that promote cultural diversity in Aotearoa New Zealand.