Unequal Lives in London: Ruth Glass, London's Newcomers and the roots/routes of inequality in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

Strong, Sam

Abstract

This article is concerned with understanding the causes and consequences of urban inequalities in London today. Focusing on the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea specifically, it explores the rootedness of inequalities in the borough. It does so through two interlocutors. The first is the urban scholar Ruth Glass, specifically re-visiting her 1961 book Newcomers and what it can contribute to our understandings of racial prejudice today. The second is Neville, a long-time resident of the borough who migrated to the borough from the Caribbean in 1961. By presenting the shifting contours of his life-world, the article reveals the value of historically deep and geographically situated accounts of inequality that surpass the empirical reach of more traditional quantitative methods. It concludes by calling for accounts of London that more directly place privilege and suffering, and poverty and profit, as interconnected phenomena.

Citation

Strong, S. (in press). Unequal Lives in London: Ruth Glass, London's Newcomers and the roots/routes of inequality in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. London Journal,

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 22, 2024
• Deposit Date: Oct 24, 2024
• Print ISSN: 0305-8034
• Electronic ISSN: 1749-6322
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: Inequality; Migration; Race; Relationality; Ruth Glass
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/40865563