Places of Everyday Cosmopolitanisms: East European Construction Workers in London

Abstract

I illustrate how cosmopolitanisms among East European construction workers in London are shaped by the localised spatial contexts in which encounters with difference take place. Their cosmopolitan attitudes and behaviours arise from both survival strategies and a taste for cultural goods, thus challenging the elite–working-class divide in current cosmopolitanism literature. Through semistructured interviews and participant photographs of twenty-four East European construction workers who have arrived in London since the European Union expansion in May 2004, I illustrate how these ‘new’ European citizens develop varying degrees and multitudes of cosmopolitanisms in everyday places such as building sites and shared houses. These cosmopolitanisms are shaped by their transnational histories, nationalistic sentiments, and 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. Finally, I suggest that cosmopolitanism should be understood not simply through class but rather also through access to power and capital in everyday localised contexts.

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