Same, but different: Within London's ‘static’ class structure and the missing antagonism

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss (Manley, D., and R. Johnston. 2014. ‘London: A Dividing City, 2001–11?’ City 18 (6): 633–643) intervention into recent debates on London's contemporary class structure. We find that Manley and Johnston show evidence to support many of the claims we have previously made, providing further support against the argument that London has become increasingly a middle-class (Butler, T., C. Hamnett, and M. Ramsden. 2008. ‘Inward and Upward? Marking Out Social Class Change in London 1981–2001.’ Urban Studies 45 (2): 67–88) and/or professionalized (Hamnett, C. 2004. ‘Economic and Social Change and Inequality in Global Cities: The Case of London.’ The Greek Review of Social Research 113: 63–80) city. Yet Manley and Johnston's accounting of class change in London also requires critical consideration. We argue their description of London as static in terms of class change has to be read extremely carefully, since such descriptions can obscure the vast population shifts that have occurred in London over recent decades. We also question the extent to which a concern with class antagonism is absent from their intervention. In conclusion, we reflect on what recent talk of London's social class composition means for working-class politics.

Key words:

• London
• class
• working class
• Marxism
• struggle

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Newspaper headlines, such as ‘London, Playground of the Rich' (Mostrous 2011), regularly feature in the British press. In these features, London is often presented as becoming a space owned by the global elite: ‘Russian oligarchs, Middle East sheikhs, African despots  …  how did the capital become a haven for the glitterati?' (Mostrous 2011).

2 The terms ‘social upgrading' and ‘social downgrading' are placed in quotation marks to denote their problematic associations.

Additional information

Mark Davidson is Assistant Professor of Geography at the Graduate School of Geography, Clark University.

Elvin Wyly is Associate Professor of Geography at the Department of Geography, The University of British Columbia. Email: [email protected]