Realising the Diversity Dividend: Population Diversity and Urban Economic Development

Abstract

This paper critically examines the increasing use of population diversity as a source of competitive advantage and distinctiveness within policies promoting urban economic development. Rising levels of population diversity are a characteristic feature of many urban areas and this has led to increased policy attempts to realise a so-called ‘diversity dividend’. Yet much of this policy thinking demonstrates a restricted understanding of the nature of the relationships between diverse populations and urban economic change. Through a comprehensive review of existing theoretical and policy practice in relation to population diversity, this paper identifies an often narrow focus upon higher skilled and higher income populations and their needs within much urban economic policy thinking. It is argued that a more critical and wide-ranging approach to the complex relationship between population diversity and city development is required if a more just form of urban economic development is to be achieved.