The geography of community and political organisation in London today

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Recent data indicate that rates of net migration to the UK reached a historic high of 200,000 a year in the last decade (see Wills et al., 2010, p. 11/2). There are, of course, particular social processes driving rates of population mobility that can't be addressed in any detail here. These are growing rates of family breakdown, the lack of affordable housing, the pursuit of higher education and careers, unemployment, second home ownership, the growth of retirement settlements and the increased ease of transportation. Geographers at Sheffield University (Dorling, Vickers, Thomas, Pritchard, & Ballas, 2008) recently produced a rough measure of the factors that can erode social stability in what they called the ‘anomie index’. Acknowledging the limitations of the statistics, Dorling and colleagues calculated ‘anomie’ for geographical areas across the UK on the basis of the number of non-married adults; one person households; people moving in the last year; and people in private rented accommodation. Between 1971 and 2001, the index rose most, indicating the greatest increases in ‘anomie’, in London, eastern Scotland, Nottinghamshire and the South West of England. This pattern reflects rates of immigration, the numbers of students, industrial decline and second home ownership. As might be expected, London topped the table and its measure rose from 21.8% in 1971 to 32.4% in 2001. It is important to note that this analysis has been controversial in the UK. Although there are those who have endorsed similar arguments (Dench, Gavron, & Young, 2006; Goodhart, 2004), and others who have developed a range of cognate policy proposals (Commission on Integration and Cohesion, 2007), many retain a commitment to economic rather than cultural explanations for the lack of social cohesion. Critics argue that Putnam misreads the effects of poverty by blaming diversity (Letki, 2008). Here, however, I want to focus on the issues of population mobility and diversity in relation to creating community-based organisation and the implications this has for politics. In this regard, it is also important to acknowledge that the Gibson-Graham approach to performative epistemology is not without its critics. While space precludes adequate coverage of the debate here, some academics argue that this engaged approach to research limits the scope, scale and impact of knowledge production and the outcomes of the research (see for example, Kelly, 2005). Saul Alinsky, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia, was born in Chicago in 1909 and he died in 1972 (Horwitt, 1989; Von Hoffman, 2010; Warren, 2001). Alinsky pioneered a form of community organising that is still nurtured by the Industrial Areas Foundation and he inspired a plethora of other community-based organising networks. This interview was conducted by Gunther Jancke for his MA dissertation on 20 May 2010. I am grateful to him and Paul for permission to cite it here. This is, of course, not to suggest that there aren't limits in focussing on the things people have in common rather than what divides. Some issues have to be tackled via other forms of political organisation.