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London: City of Paradox Edited by Paolo Cardullo, Rahila Gupta and Jamie Hakim Organised by: Centre for Migrants, Refugees and Belonging UEL Runnymede Trust Iniva - Institute of International Visual Arts London East Research Institut e UEL Raphael Samue l History Centre Centre for Cultural Studies Research Matrix East Research Lab UEL Centre for Narrative Research UEL Institute for Performing Arts Development UEL A publication based on papers presented at the International Conference 'London: City of Paradox' 3-5 April 2012 at University of East London Docklands Campus London E16 2RD This publication is Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Individual authors might retain some rights, please check with them Front cover photograph by Paolo Cardullo (from Walking on the Rim, 2012) CMRB on-line publications – no. 3 Contents Introduction......................................................................................................................5 Section 1: London and the World............................................................11 Glocal London: the Double Crisis of Governability and Governmentality — Nira Yuval–Davis (UEL)...................................................................................................................................12 Understanding the Crisis — Michael Rustin (UEL)....................................................21 When Cities become Extreme Sites for our Major Challenges — Saskia Sassen (Columbia) .............................................................................................................................................30 Dealing in Death: the Battle Against the UK Arms Trade — Barnaby Pace (Freelance) .............................................................................................................................................41 Section 2 Contending Histories...............................................................47 City of Paradox: The Refugee Experience — Philip Marfleet (UEL)......................48 A Snapshot of the Jewish Community in London — Alex Goldberg (Surrey)......54 After the Kettle, the Cordon — Dan Hancox (Freelance)........................................59 London, Liberalism, and the Chinese Labour Question — David Glover (Southampton) .............................................................................................................................................66 Section 3 East London...............................................................................74 Can Real Critique be Faith-based? The Role of Religion as Electoral Opposition — Sukhwant Dhaliwal (Bedfordshire)..............................................................................75 ‘Cleaning Up’: The Living Wage Campaign at the University of East London — Ana Lopes and Tim Hall (UEL)............................................................................................................86 The Jewish Community in Multicultural London — Ben Gidley (Oxford)............96 Section 4 Race, Racism and the City.......................................................104 The Tropes of ‘Diversity’: a Significant Face of Contemporary Racisms — Floya Anthias (Roehampton)...................................................................................................................105 Migrant London — David Feldman (Birkbeck)...........................................................110 Visible and Invisible Migrants — Rahila Gupta (SBS)................................................116 London and Riot — Jerry White (Birkbeck)................................................................123 England’s Riots of 2011: uprisings or avarice? — Rob Berkeley (Runnymede Trust) .............................................................................................................................................130 Section 5 London and Diasporic Belongings........................................142 Contested Memories: the Shahid Minar and the Struggle for Diasporic Space — Claire Alexander (LSE)................................................................................................................143 Cyprus and the City: The Negotiated Home of Cypriot Refugees in London — Helen Taylor (UEL).......................................................................................................................150 Talking about Home: Exploring the Particular Communities in Particular Places that Create ‘Localities of Belonging’ — Nicola Samson (UEL)......................................................157 Section 6 Imagining London.....................................................................166 The Inside/Outside World of Monica Ali’s Brick Lane — Lucinda Newns (London Metropolitan)....................................................................................................................167 A Child of the Jago: the Reality and the Fiction — Sarah Wise (Novelist)...........175 Section 7 City and Spectacle....................................................................181 Value Creation in the Olympic City — Gavin Poynter (UEL)....................................182 Is the Army invading British Civil Society? — Vron Ware (Open University)........187 New Forms of Privatism — Mike Raco (King’s College)...........................................193 London: City of Paradox Ð 5 Introduction The London Olympics of 2012 was watched by a vast television audience worldwide. According to the International Olympic Committee, the opening ceremony attracted over 900 million people who saw an elaborate pageant celebrating British history and national culture (Olympic News, 2012). Images of the opening and closing ceremonies, the sunlit stadium, the medallists and happy crowds were part of a visual script for the Games that planners had long intended to project. For British politicians they expressed national pride and civic achievement, reflecting their approach to London 2012 as a project with distinct aims that complemented their own agendas. They were quick to assert its successes and benefits. Britain had “delivered” said Prime Minister David Cameron; the Games were “a spectacular success” said Tony Blair: they had portrayed a modern, multicultural Britain, proud of its traditions and diverse culture (Topping, 2012). London mayor Boris Johnson declared that London had shown it was the “capital of the world”. He called for “triumphalism” and “pointless displays of irritating flag-waving jingo”. All had been happiness and harmony: “Across London there has been a happy maelstrom of parties and celebration ... it has been everywhere.” Johnson continued, “These Games have not changed us. They have revealed us as we are: people who can pull off great feats... London has put on a dazzling face to the global audience. For the first time since the end of the empire, it truly feels like the capital of the world.” (Topping, 2012) Following the Games all was feel-good. According to Sebastian Coe, chair of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, “London 2012 was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to showcase everything that makes Britain great... The winning, planning, delivery and legacy of the Olympic Games called upon all the qualities that make the UK stand out in the global economy.” (Olympic News, 2012) Official reports recorded that 590,000 people had visited London for the event, delivering an economic bonanza for the city and the wider national economy: by 2020 Games-related benefits were expected to total £41 billion. The Olympics had created jobs and attracted investment: they had also succeeded in stimulating what London’s mayor called Team London – an engagement of the city’s people in efforts to help their most disadvantaged fellow Londoners, producing “a sense of unity” and common purpose (Prashar, 2011). Others were less certain. The Financial Times observed that government figures on the economic benefits of the Olympics had been called into question by many economists and London: City of Paradox Ð 6 academics (Blitz, 2013). Business Secretary Vince Cable admitted that official estimates were open to challenge: “It is the best we can do – it is not necessarily something that would pass muster in the best academic journals”, he said. There were also unresolved questions about “legacy”, about the value of infrastructural change and of costly securitisation programmes, and the cost of displacing industrial enterprises and housing that “obstructed” planning for the Games. What were the long-term benefits? Who profited – and how? These concerns echoed independent assessments of earlier Olympics. In 2008 Canadian academic Christopher Shaw had published Five Ring Circus: Myths and Realities of the Olympic Games, an account of how the city of Vancouver won the bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics. He examined who was involved and what motivated their engagement in the process. Analysing the role of corporate media in promoting the Games, and the machinations of government and business, he concluded that the Vancouver experience was “a cautionary tale for future Olympic bid cities” (2008, p.4). All such bids, he suggested, produced “crops of lies, broken promises, debt, social displacement and environmental destruction”. Vancouver’s bid history was “utterly predictive” of what was likely to happen in London and in Sochi (venue for the 2014 Winter Olympics). He observed: The same real estate developers organize and drive the Olympic bid, a litany of promises – all later broken – are made about people and the