This paper draws on the work of Jean Baudrillard to critique the manner in which notions of ‘identity’ and ‘difference’ are employed in understandings of the multicultural city. It begins with an overview of ways in which ethnicity is construed in the planning literature on multicultural cities. This is followed by discussion of Baudrillard’s contention that the basic terms of engagement with multiculturalism, ‘identity’ and ‘difference’, are problematic in so far as they mirror the fundamental means by which discrimination is effected in capitalist societies. It is argued that, in some cases, commentators on the multicultural city merely rehearse and entrench certain of capitalism’s key ideological ‘alibis’; in other cases, commentators present as critical insights what Baudrillard might regard as normative descriptions of the current machinations of capitalism.

本文利用让·鲍德里亚（Jean Baudrillard）的著作来批判“身份”和“差异”概念在理解多元文化城市中的运用方式。它首先概述了关于多元文化城市的规划文献中的族裔解释方式。接着讨论鲍德里亚的论点，即与多元文化主义交往的基本术语“身份”和“差异”是有问题的，因为它们反映了在资本主义社会中实行歧视的基本手段。有人认为，在某些情况下，关于多元文化城市的评论员只是排练和巩固某些资本主义的主要意识形态“阿里比斯”。在其他情况下，