Abstract
This paper examines social mixing at a mixed-tenure neighbourhood in London – a former social housing estate which is undergoing a lengthy radical regeneration process. This process involves some rehousing of tenants into newly-built social housing properties, alongside extensive building of large numbers of upmarket ‘luxury’ flats for sale. The latter has brought about a radically changed neighbourhood demographic involving a much more affluent population, alongside visible social and economic signs of gentrification. The paper is based on survey research as well as ethnographic research involving participant observation and semi-structured interviews with residents and officials. The paper explores social mixing between the established social tenants and the newer residents living in the new private housing blocks, and it highlights several reasons why such social mixing is limited and, in many cases, non-existent. The first reason is the way that the social housing blocks are physically separated from the private housing blocks. Secondly, is how the spatial focus of the private residents is often the block itself, a process which is reinforced by social media usage, as well as usage of the exclusive gyms and swimming pools which are unavailable to social tenants. Thirdly, are the large class and demographic differences between the social tenants and the incoming private residents. Fourthly, is the different usage of public space, with the social tenants more likely to attend community centre events, whilst the private incomers are more likely to use the commercial cafes and pubs which are prohibitively expensive for social tenants. Fifthly, are the inter-personal tensions which exist between the two groups, in terms of stigma and mutual suspicion. The paper concludes that, despite the ubiquitous policy claims which are made for the benefits of mixed-tenure communities, ‘not social mixing’ is the de facto result of estate regeneration in this increasingly unequal part of London.
Biography
Paul Watt is Visiting Professor in the Department of Sociology, London School of Economics and Political Science, and Emeritus Professor in Urban Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. He has published widely on social housing, urban regeneration, communities and neighbourhoods, homelessness, housing activism, gentrification, suburbanisation, and the 2012 London Olympic Games. His latest book is Estate Regeneration and Its Discontents: Public Housing, Place and Inequality in London (Policy Press, 2021).
