Welfare micropublics and inequality: urban super-diversity in a time of austerity

ABSTRACT

This article argues for the importance of the role of the national and local state, and of increasing socio-economic inequality for understanding urban super-diversity in a time of austerity. Using a methodology and conceptualization that avoids the methodological ethnicism and “methodological neighbourhoodism” inherent in some diversity research, we draw on quantitative analysis and ethnographically produced material from south London to ask what differences make a difference. Examining interactions in “welfare micropublics”, including maternity services, schools, and elderly social care, we show that residents and service providers, often following an “ethos of inclusion”, routinely engage with difference in encounters, allowing the potential for conviviality to emerge. We argue that only by considering diversity together with inequality, can we develop more textured and nuanced accounts of super-diverse urban areas, including a fuller understanding of the social production of difference and indifference.

KEYWORDS:

• Super-diversity
• inequality
• austerity
• the state
• conviviality
• London

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the contribution of Rachel Humphris, Hiranthi Jayaweera, Caroline Oliver, and photographer Simon Rowe, to the research on which this article is based. We also owe thanks to the many people who took time to meet with and be interviewed by us, and to Southwark Council for facilitation of access. Finally, we thank Sarah Neal for her perceptive comments on an earlier version.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Mette Louise Berg http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7723-9085

Ben Gidley http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2492-1384

Anna Krausova http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9894-7531

Notes

1 The wider research project also included research on social housing estates, which is not explicitly discussed here.

2 See, e.g. http://35percent.org/the-southwark-clearances/.

3 Census data offer a snapshot of the population in small geographical areas; the ONS estimated its overall coverage to be 94 per cent for England and Wales (ONS 2012). It is nonetheless a partial look, and in areas of high churn and with many recent immigrants, coverage is likely to be lower, with estimates for Southwark specifically at 87 per cent, see http://www.2.southwark.gov.uk/info/200223/census_2011/2723/census_2011_briefing.

4 National Childbirth Trust, a national charity, traditionally dominated by the White, middle class.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the John Fell Fund, University of Oxford (grant number 122/680).