Search

The article presents information on cultural and social change in the regions of Notting Hill, London. The last 15 years or so have witnessed much academic interest in the cultural aspects of contemporary shifts in the structure of urban space. Alongside accounts of the economic processes underlying such trends as gentrification and globalization which are seen as fundamental to the social and spatial restructuring of the post-Fordist city, an increasing amount of attention has been paid to the importance of the cultural in such processes. An area such as Notting Hill, so subject to the disorientating processes of gentrification and mediated representation, would seem a potentially fascinating place in which to research the place-meanings held by marginal or subordinate groups through direct qualitative research. Much has been written about the emergence of a postmodern urban landscape in which the post-industrial order of class polarization transforms the structure of urban space through associated processes, including gentrification.