Austerity urbanism and Olympic counter-legacies: gendering, defending and expanding the urban commons in East London

Gillespie, T. and Hardy, K. and Watt, Paul (2018) Austerity urbanism and Olympic counter-legacies: gendering, defending and expanding the urban commons in East London. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 36 (5), pp. 812-830. ISSN 1472-3433.

Abstract

This article reflects on an occupation led by single mothers to contest the destruction of social housing in post-Olympics East London. In the process, it argues for a more gendered theorisation of the urban commons. Drawing on auto-ethnography, participant observation and qualitative interviews, the article argues three central points: First, that the occupation demonstrates the gendered nature of the urban commons and the leadership of women in defending them from enclosure; second that the defence of an existing urban commons enabled the creation of a new temporary commons characterised by the collectivisation of gendered socially reproductive activities; and third that this commoning has had a lasting impact on housing activism at the city scale and beyond. This impact is conceptualised as an ‘Olympic counter-legacy’ that is characterised by the forging of new relationships and affinities, the strengthening of networked activism and circulation of tactics between campaign groups.

Metadata

Statistics

DownloadsShow export options

Export as XMLJSONCSV

Activity Overview

6 month trend

420Downloads

6 month trend

286Hits

Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.

Archive Staff Only (login required)

Edit/View Item