A tale of two cities: the discursive construction of ‘place’ in gentrifying East London

Ilbury, Christian (2020) A tale of two cities: the discursive construction of ‘place’ in gentrifying East London. Language in Society. ISSN 0047-4045 (In Press)

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Abstract

In recent years, the East End of London has been dramatically transformed from a poor, working-class area, to one of the most fashionable neighbourhoods in the world. Adding to a growing body of research which examines the sociolinguistic dynamics of gentrifying neighbourhoods, this paper draws on data from two ethnographic projects to examine how young people from the gentrified (i.e., working-class) and gentrifier (i.e., middle-class) communities index place-attachment in East London. I demonstrate that for the gentrified community, place attachment is related to the ethnic and cultural genealogy of the immediate, local neighbourhood. Whilst for the gentrifiers, place-identity is associated with the cosmopolitan economic and social opportunities of the city. I argue that whilst these communities occupy the same physical neighbourhood, these discourses suggest that they conceptually and socio- culturally reside in two very different cities.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Gentrification, place, space, East London
Subjects: D History General and Old World > D History (General)
H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Divisions: Faculty of Arts, Business & Applied Social Science > Department of Arts & Humanities
Depositing User: David Upson-Dale
Date Deposited: 22 Oct 2020 15:59
Last Modified: 22 Oct 2020 15:59
URI: https://oars.uos.ac.uk/id/eprint/1459

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