Page 77 - Culture Media Language Working Papers in Cultural Studies

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Subcultural conflict and working-class
community*

Phil Cohen

The fifties saw the development of new towns and large estates on the outskirts
of east London (Dagenham, Greenleigh and so on), and a large number of
families from the worst slums of the East End were rehoused in this way. The
East End, one of the highest-density areas in London, underwent a gradual
depopulation. But as it did so, certain areas underwent a repopulation as they
were rapidly colonized by a large influx of West Indians and Pakistanis. One of
the reasons why these communities were attracted (in the weak sense of the
word) to such areas is often called ‘planning blight’. This concept has been used
to describe what happens in the take-off phase of comprehensive redevelopment
in the inner residential zones of large urban centres. The typical pattern is that as
redevelopment begins, land values inevitably rise and rental values fall; the most
dynamic elements in local industry, which are usually the largest employers of
labour, tend to move out, alongside the migrating families, and are often offered
economic incentives to do so; much of the existing dilapidated property in the
area is bought up cheaply by property speculators and Rachman-type landlords,
who are only interested in the maximum exploitation of their assets—the largest
profits in the shortest time. As a result the property is often not maintained and
becomes even further dilapidated. Immigrant families with low incomes,
excluded from council housing, naturally gravitate to these areas to penetrate the
local economy. This in turn accelerates the migration of the indigenous
community to the new towns and estates. The only apparent exception to
planning blight in fact proves the rule. For those few areas which are linked to
invisible assets—such as houses of ‘character’ (late Georgian or early Victorian)
or amenities such as parks—are actually bought up and improved, renovated for
the new middle class, students, young professionals who require easy access to
the commercial and cultural centre of the city. The end result for the local
community is the same: whether the neighbourhood is upgraded or downgraded,
long-resident working-class families move out.
As the worst effects of this first phase, both on those who moved and on those
who stayed behind, became apparent, the planning authorities decided to reverse
their policy. Everything was now concentrated on building new estates on slum
sites within the East End. But far from counteracting the social disorganization
of the area, this merely accelerated the process. In analysing the impact of