Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Cool Places, Creative Places? Community Perceptions Of Cultural Vitality In The Suburbs, Chris Gibson, Chris Brennan-Horley, Beth Laurenson, Naomi Riggs, Andrew Warren, Ben Gallan, Heidi Brown

Chris Gibson

This article stems from a project examining cultural assets in Wollongong - a medium-sized Australian city with a decentralized and linear suburban pattern that challenges orthodox binaries of inner-city bohemia/outer-suburban domesticity. In Wollongong we documented community perceptions of cultural assets across this unusual setting, through a simple public research method. At the city's largest annual festival we recruited the general public to nominate the city's most 'cool' and 'creative' places, by drawing on a map of Wollongong and telling their stories. Hand-drawn maps from 205 participants were combined in a Geographical Information System and 50 hours of stories transcribed for …