No such thing as one narrative of the city

Writing the history of a city as a whole is underpinned by a great conundrum: while we can talk of ‘the city’ as one place — which indeed it is—it is also a different place to different people. There can be no such thing as one narrative of the city. For cities do not emerge by building alone, or by the unchallenged decrees of authority, by plans and regulations. They do not consist solely of transport systems or street grids or a series of architectural styles marching steadily over the decades. They emerge from kaleidoscopic complexity, from all these things, but more importantly from the dialogues and struggles which drove them. Different groups vied for control of urban culture, spaces and places and for economic and social dominance, all within overarching environmental imperatives. Different people had divergent visions for this place, and themselves in it. They imagined different futures.
— Grace Karskens, The Colony : A history of early Sydney

Acknowledgement: Photo by Aditya Joshi on Unsplash.

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