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‘Home’ is a space which occupies multiple sites, with which come multiple sensory experiences. The geographies of ‘home’ as defined beyond the dwelling and fixed notions of home are what has been called ‘stretched’. This paper investigates ‘home’ for 15 young men of mixed race aged 16 to 19 in East London. Through the use of written electronic diaries, interviews and photo-voice it explores how city spaces became mobile sites of belonging and various ‘public’ urban spaces become ‘homelike’ for young men of mixed race. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Healey has described planning as managing a shared existence in space. In the context of multicultural cities, this shared lived experience brings to the forefront the interdependence of the factors shaping urban life and intergroup relations. In the past decade, throughout Europe, urban policies for deprived areas became increasingly concerned with issues of segregation, community cohesion and social mix alongside addressing deprivation. Concerns about urban tensions further accentuated such tendencies. Implicitly or explicitly, such policies rely strongly on the influence of contact and the interaction of intergroup relations. However, the way that the associated theories have been incorporated into discussions and policies tends to focus on a fleeting interaction approach, with questionable outcomes. Through the lens of two London boroughs, this paper explores the spatial dimensions of ‘living together’ and the ways that social mix, interaction and multicultural spaces affect intergroup relations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports on a study of visual autobiographies produced in art workshops conducted in a variety of social contexts in East London with 19 research participants 11 women and girls, 8 men and boys - ranging from 10 to the 50s. From narrative analysis of the images, associated interviews, and field notes on the production and exhibition of the images, the paper argues that the study of cultural activity can allow us to identify cultural-spatial positionings related to, but also distinct from, socio-spatial positionings. Those cultural-spatial positionings indicate and in some cases produce cultural and symbolic resources that might not be discernable from other non-visual research data, that may differ importantly from participants' socioeconomic resources, and that could usefully receive more attention. The study also suggests that transnationalism is strongly tied to people's narratives of their cultural lives within global cities, is critically articulated, and can be under-recognised when it is rooted in family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study estimates the impact of the London 2012 Olympics announcement on property prices. Using a self-constructed dataset of a sample of property transactions, it is estimated that properties in host boroughs are sold between 2.1 and 3.3 per cent higher, depending on the definition of the impact area. A similar investigation based on radius rings suggests that properties up to three miles away from the main Olympic stadium sell for 5 per cent higher. It is estimated that the overall impact on the price of properties in host boroughs amounts to £1.4 billion, having substantial social and financial implications for existing residents. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article takes a critical look at the exploitation of difference and at the impact of political forces of various kinds on ethnic segregation. It examines both external forces and forces from within 'communities' themselves through the case history of Bengali settlement in the East End of London. It assesses the different, though interacting, roles of immigration legislation and resource allocation, community and separatist politics, populism and multiculturalism, and brings the story up to date with an account of the incorporation of faith groups in local governance and of the wooing of the Muslim vote in the context of 'the war on terror'. This understanding is presented as a necessary first step in combating ethnic division and focusing instead on social equality for all ethnicities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The task of revisiting Young and Willmott's Family and Kinship in East London was probably impossible. Dench, Gavron and Young extended the geographical coverage of their study area to include some fundamentally different zones adjacent to Bethnal Green. The study extended over a decade but the authors' The New East End fails to make clear dates, actors and locations. The theoretical framework is incoherent and especially so when referring to actors outside the area of study who the authors claim have considerable power and influence in the East End. Local people are static informants and so as a 'community study' the book fails to provide a narrative or analysis rooted in local events during a very eventful period of its history. The discussion of social policy changes, which form the background to this study is partial and tendentious. Although there is an illuminating section discussing migration from Sylhet the book is simply bad sociology. One outcome of the publication of The New East End has been that more general readers (including both the BNP and the Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality) have been able to draw whatever conclusions from the book suit their own agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]