Encounters on the footpath: tracing the Sri Lankan diaspora’s place-making in everyday urban and suburban spaces

ABSTRACT Existing scholarship on footpaths, sidewalks, streets, and pavements integrates laudable discussions about legal and regulatory concerns alongside debates about safety and place-making. Yet there are fewer debates about diasporic encounters and place-making processes in this everyday space. Accordingly, this paper examines encounters that occur on footpaths and outside adjoining shops by the Sri Lankan diaspora in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. The footpaths fall within the semi-public realm; they are public spaces connected to privately owned shops. I draw from a critical autoethnography and in-depth interviews conducted with Sri Lankans living in Australia to better understand how their place-making processes are entrenched in the semi-public realm. This paper provides a fresh case study to highlight the importance of warm and convivial encounters in everyday spaces that strengthen feelings of familiarity and belonging in host communities.