With an estimated 150 different social, faith and ethnic groups, Birmingham is a city which can claim to be as diverse as it is possible to be.

Now the city council has launched an inquiry which is aiming to find out what qualities the city’s inhabitants have in common, and what binds them all together.

Members of the council’s new social cohesion and community safety scrutiny committee will take evidence over the next few weeks on “What Makes A Brummie?” as they try to find the values that make up modern Birmingham and what attracts people to the city.

Birmingham was once known as the city of a thousand trades, an engine room of the Industrial Revolution and, during the last century, was the city of the motor car. It had a reputation for hard work, manufacturing and entrepreneurship.

In the national news Birmingham is known for the Bullring, its distinctly average football teams, while the accent continually appears among the least attractive in opinion polls.

Last year, many were surprised to find that Birmingham was the birthplace of heavy metal music – thanks to the Home of Metal exhibition at the Museum and Art Gallery, which attracted the attention of a very surprised global music press. One review said of the city’s tendency to hide its successes: “Birmingham, they do things indifferently there”.

The city has also come under fire for underplaying the close connections to one of the most successful series of books ever written – The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

So now leaders are wondering how the city should be regarded in the 21st century.

The inquiry is being led by the newly formed committee, chaired by Coun Waseem Zaffar.

Coun Zaffar comes from a Kashmiri Muslim family, is an Aston Villa supporter and was last month was awarded the MBE for services to the community – most notably his work to prevent last summer’s riots spilling over from the city centre to Handsworth.

The area he represents, East Handsworth and Lozells, includes strongly defined ethnic and faith communities – African Caribbean, Muslim, Indian, Sikh, white – and he wants to know what values and ideals they share.

He said: “The common link between all the different communities and people is that we choose to make Birmingham our home.”

He argues that there seems to be a strong shared identity for people in other cities and parts of the UK and wants to know what characterises a ‘Brummie’.

He has the backing of the new cabinet member for social cohesion, John Cotton, who has been given the task of closing gaps in inequality in the city.

Coun Zaffar added: “This is a diverse city, one of the most diverse in the UK with people of different backgrounds.

“But there are things we have in common, rights we have and responsibilities as well. We must also work to stop those groups who work to undermine this.”

Birmingham historian Carl Chinn said: “We all have diverse backgrounds, different beliefs but we all share the same space – the city of Birmingham and are all Brummies. I hope this inquiry will highlight what unifies us.

“There were good reasons for a focus on multi-culturalism and diversity, but there should also be more attention on unity otherwise there is a danger we will create ghettos.”

He suggested that the council should look at the Bullring markets as one of the few places where those various groups meet and mingle.

Events such as the Caribbean cooking festival and St Patrick’s Day Parade will be looked at as examples of a culture sharing its values.

School exchanges will be considered, while the committee will also study various successful and not so successful communities.