Abstract
In this paper we explore the types of employment and livelihood strategies witnessed on an inner-city estate in London. In doing so we engage with debates over the changing occupational class structure of London, contending that although the estate was a neat enough microcosm of city-wide trends in terms of inequality and professionalisation, because of the day-to-day dynamics of residents’ working and social lives a perception of social polarisation dominated their understandings of the city. Key factors here included the ongoing restructuring of London’s labour market and a tendency for people to see the world in terms of an opposition between ‘winners’ and ‘losers’.
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Notes
- 1.
The names of all places (besides London) and people encountered during the ethnography have been changed in an attempt to ensure anonymity.
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Rosbrook-Thompson, J., Armstrong, G. (2021). Mixed Occupancy: Mixed Occupations? Inequality and Employment on an Inner-City Housing Estate. In: Pardo, I., Prato, G. (eds) Urban Inequalities. Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51724-3_10
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