Tripping Through the City: Cosmopolitan Identity, Creative Product and Adaptation

Abstract

Traditional forms of research into cosmopolitanism are productively supplemented by research in the form of the development of a portfolio of creative products. This paper explores the contribution of my short story, and a short film script I have adapted from it, to the study of personal and community identity formations in two Australian sites of cosmopolitanism: Sydney, N.S.W. and Gold Coast City, Queensland. My focus is on how identity is related to these post-modern urban settings; the travel narrative shared by story and script opens up this question in ways that contribute to the body of knowledge on cosmopolitanism. Following the journey of a taxi driver and his passenger through the ex-centric' geography of these cities generates insights into the shifting nature of contemporary cosmopolitan identities as these are shaped by our urban environment and by the ways in which we choose to travel through this environment. The paper also considers the economic forces underlying cosmopolitanism. Within the multi-dimensional creative approach of my project, adaptation provides a highly useful strategy for engaging cosmopolitanism because it links to the notion of the post-modern city as a site of adaptation' where the construction, even survival, of identity is always at stake.