Abstract
In this chapter, we examine how LG residents approached the issue of human variation. More specifically, we explore their attitudes to migration and ethnicity, along with the notions of difference invoked when explaining the behaviours of neighbours and fellow residents. In doing so, we draw on studies of superdiversity, particularly Susanne Wessendorf’s (2013, Commonplace Diversity: Social Relations in a Super-Diverse Context; Journal of Cultural Studies, 17(4), 392–405, 2014) research on levels and types of cross-class and -ethnic engagement in east London, as well as David Goodhart’s (The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics, 2017) recent work on identity and the rise of populism in the guise of ‘Brexit’ and the election of Donald Trump in the United States. Although lots of engagement across ethnic and class lines occurred in and around the estate, for some residents a set of perceived differences rooted in class and ethnicity remained the cause of tension. Furthermore, any private gatherings tended to be characterised by shared class status. Indeed, in some instances the cross-class and -ethnic engagement that did occur within private space pointed up differences which undercut the sense of commonality that occasioned the engagement in the first place.
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Notes
- 1.
‘Brexit ’ is a shorthand term used to denote the outcome of a referendum on membership of the European Union (EU) held in Britain in June 2016. The majority of the electorate, albeit slim (51.9 per cent), voted in favour of Britain leaving the EU.
- 2.
‘Tepi’ was local slang used to describe someone of South Asian descent, usually a second-generation migrant, whose speech was clearly marked by certain South Asian inflections and pronunciations. It was a derogatory term because it implied that the person labelled came from a low-status family.
- 3.
In 1969, a committee led by housing expert J. B. Cullingworth reported on the ‘Purposes, Procedures and Priorities’ of local authority housing in the UK. The report included a chapter on ‘Housing Coloured People’ which argued that ‘new Commonwealth’ migrants had faced systematic discrimination in various housing sectors. The way forward, the report suggested, was for local authorities to disperse ethnic minorities from poor housing into council housing in various locales across the UK (Sprigings 2017).
- 4.
‘Conviviality ’, as Paul Gilroy (2004: 167) h as called it, requires a metropolis ‘in which cultures, histories, and structures of feeling previously separated by enormous distances can be found in the same place, the same time: school, bus, café, cell, waiting room, or traffic jam’. Discussing the conviviality found in the postcolonial city, Gilroy has described the ‘chaotic pleasures’ enjoyed by its inhabitants. This conjures images of the carnivalesque and, indeed, Gilroy places faith in the ‘carnival of heteroculture’ to familiarise the ideal of a non-racial humanity.
- 5.
In Britain, in most cases a new development will receive planning permission only if it incorporates a number of ‘affordable housing ’ units. Many developers have constructed separate entrances for these units, leading to their being labelled ‘poor doors’.
- 6.
The shisha (or hookah) pipe is used to smoke flavoured tobacco. The vapour or smoke of this tobacco is passed through a water basin before being inhaled.
- 7.
‘Cookie cutter’ is an Americanism which has entered the vocabulary of many Londoners. It refers to something based on an archetype and thus lacking any distinctive qualities.
- 8.
Bury is a town in the Greater Manchester region of north west England.
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Rosbrook-Thompson, J., Armstrong, G. (2018). Rubbing Along: Proximity and Understandings of Difference. In: Mixed-Occupancy Housing in London. Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74678-4_5
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