WHAT I DO
I am an urban anthropologist. This means that I am interested in how people experience and make sense of social and cultural life in the city.
“‘There is always a risk that the disruption of long standing, predominantly working class neighbourhoods, alongside a short-sighted failure to preserve, or to properly commemorate industrial heritage, will be perceived as a general lack of respect for, and misunderstanding about the cultural histories of local livelihood that preceded the long-awaited but less-then ideal dawning of a service sector city.’”
I have done all my research in London, exploring the material and social transformation of the Docklands and riverside industry on both the southern and northern banks of the River Thames.
I am especially interested in the transformation of post-industrial cities in Britain, and particularly London.
My aim is to explore and to explain what it means for the society we live in that once thriving industries, and manufacturing sites in Britain, like the Docks, the coal mines, the steelworks, the potteries and so on, have declined and closed down whilst a new service sector, knowledge and financial services economy has grown.
My research addresses the question of what it means to inhabit a post-industrial society at the beginning of the 21st Century.