Places of Everyday Cosmopolitanisms: East European Construction Workers in London

Abstract

Original citation:The definitive, peer-reviewed and edited version of this article is published as: Datta, Ayona ( LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LSE Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE Research Online website. This document is the author's final manuscript accepted version of the journal article, incorporating any revisions agreed during the peer review process. Some differences between this version and the published version may remain. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from it. access to social and cultural capital in specific localised contexts. Thus subjective perceptions of gendered, ethnic, and racial notions of "others" that are carried across national boundaries are reinforced or challenged as their encounters with "others" produce perceptions of marginalisation or empowerment in these places. This paper finally suggests that cosmopolitanism should be understood not simply through class but rather through access to power and capital in everyday localised contexts. 1 PLACES OF EVERYDAY COSMOPOLITANISMS: EAST-EUROPEAN CONSTRUCTION WORKERS IN LONDON INTRODUCTIONCosmopolitanism, in its most fundamental sense implies openness to difference. As the process of enlargement of social, cultural, and personal agendas, and as infinite ways of becoming open to "others" (Pollock et. al, 2000), cosmopolitanism has recently made a comeback in studies on globalisation and cultural politics. Traditionally, cosmopolitans have been conceptualised as elites (Beck, 2002;Hannerz, 2007) who "pursue refined consumption, and are open to all forms of otherness" (Hiebert, 2002, p212), but various scholars now suggest that global elites ironically have limited engagement with the "other", and a "rather 2 restricted corridor of physical movement" (Vertovec and Cohen, 2002, p7; also Calhoun, 2002) between global cities. A recent surge of scholarly work on migration focussing on migrants" transnational spatial practices (Kelly and Lusis, 2006;Wilding, 2007), social and political identities Mohan, 2006;Vertovec, 2001), and relationships with the State (Koser, 2007;Leitner and Ehrkamp, 2006;Morris, 1997;Zierhofer, 2007), suggest that working-class migrants while maintaining "intense linkages and exchanges with sending and receiving contexts" (Vertovec, 2001, p575) also perform varieties of cosmopolitan behaviours. Scholars now suggest that these "working-class cosmopolitans" (Werbner, 1999) are open to difference neither as an ethico-political project, nor as conscious choice, but as a practical orientation towa...

Migrant belonging, social location and the neighbourhood: Recent migrants in East London and Birmingham

“…In neighbourhoods characterized by long-term immigration-related diversity, both long-term residents as well as newcomers have to continuously learn to deal with diverse others, according to changes in the population and, in regards to newcomers, depending on their previous experiences of diversity. Such skills have also been described as cosmopolitan skills which facilitate interaction with culturally different others and the management of difference and inequality (Datta, 2009;Noble, 2009;Vertovec, 2009). While civility refers more generally to interaction with people who differ in various ways, cosmopolitan practices more specifically refer to interactions across cultural differences.…”

“…Importantly, it is also related to specific practices and competences (Vertovec, 2009). There is a substantial body of literature which has looked at these cosmopolitan practices among migrants and non-migrants on the local level, and how they skilfully interact with people who are different in terms of their cultural backgrounds, languages and religions (Datta, 2009;Glick Schiller et al, 2011;Noble, 2009Noble, , 2013.…”

Researching migrants’ diverse social relationships: From ethnic to cosmopolitan sociability?

“…Whilst cosmopolitanism may be easier to accomplish by those in privileged positions, with sufficient resources to travel and engage with other cultures, it expands well beyond this social category (Hannerz 2004: 76). Cross-ethnic exchanges are common amongst non-elite, often vulnerable, migrants too, as analyses of migrant workers in the Gulf (Werbner 1999), Bangladeshi and Senegalese street traders in Barcelona (Kothari 2008) or Polish construction workers in London (Datta 2009) aptly demonstrate (see also Glick Schiller et al 2011;Hannerz 2004). Cosmopolitanism has also been a recurrent feature of the experience of 'middling' migrants, often young, educated people, whose mobility is partly 5 motivated by cosmopolitan aspirations or leads to the development of cosmopolitan ties and identities, as illustrated by the experience of Tamil students in the UK (Jones 2013), Romanians in London (Moroşanu 2013), other EU graduates and professionals moving to various European cities (Favell 2008;Kennedy 2010) or Canadian consultants and youth travellers, whose journeys abroad could bring excitement and self-transformation, alongside professional gain (Amit 2015).…”

“…Contrary to the philosophical debates around cosmopolitanism understood in normative terms, these deal with 'actual cosmopolitanism' (Delanty 2012a), and involve ordinary people's discourses and practices of openness towards different others, as the term 'everyday' (Datta 2009) or its variants (e.g.…”

Industrial citizenship, cosmopolitanism and European integration

“…In reaction to a perceived class bias in earlier writings on cosmopolitanism, scholars convincingly demonstrate that mobile workers practice their own forms of embedded cosmopolitanism, however, these appear more as coping strategies than as means of building collective power. Datta relates that European movers, in her case eastern European construction workers in London, exhibit cosmopolitan behaviors (Datta 2009). The shifting of focus from the top-down, elitist and often state-centric approach to globalization to the ordinary or the 'mundane cultural interaction ' (Vertovec & Cohen, 2002) is shared by the theorists of critical cosmopolitanism (Delanty, 2006;Rumford, 2008).…”