Beyond Banglatown: continuity, change and new urban economies in Brick Lane

超越孟加拉敦：布里克巷的连续性、变革和新城市经济

• 批准号: AH/R007500/1
• 负责人: Claire Alexander
• 金额: $ 58.15万
• 依托单位: University of Manchester
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2018 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FR007500%2F1
• 关键词: Beyond; Banglatown; continuity; change; new

Brick Lane in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets is one of Britain's most iconic streets and for over 25 years has been synonymous with the curry houses of Banglatown. Brick Lane/Banglatown is perhaps the most famous example of urban regeneration and ethnic branding through food, and the restaurants and annual festivals attract hundreds of thousands of visitors. However, the identity of this once iconic street is now under erasure, with the proliferation of alternative food and retail businesses and increasing gentrification. There are also changes and challenges internal to the sector, through the over-expansion and diversification of markets, migration controls and intergenerational shifts in education and employment. This ethnographic study will explore the challenges and changes to Banglatown through an in-depth focus on the restaurant sector in and around Brick Lane. Using an innovative mix of historical, visual, quantitative and qualitative data, this project will map the changing face of Brick Lane over time and today. It will trace the development of Banglatown since its emergence as part of the urban regeneration schemes of the 1980s to the present time, and place this as part of a longer history of Indian food and eateries in London, linked to Empire, migration and trade. This small-scale and spatially bounded analysis will provide a unique lens onto broader questions and tensions around: diaspora, migration and settlement; ethnicity, inequality and the labour market; culture, consumption and economy; religion, gender and generation; multiculturalism, conviviality and everyday practices in global cities. While the focus is primarily on the Bangladeshi restaurant sector in Brick Lane, the project will use this as a stepping off point to consider the changes and challenges confronting this marginalised religious and ethnic minority community, the multi-billion pound Indian food retail sector in Britain, and the wider processes of cultural, social and economic transformation in the lives of ordinary streets. To date there has been no in-depth ethnographic study which considers holistically the changing nature of the Indian restaurant trade, the role of space in shaping ethnic businesses, and their significance as a place of global branding, interaction and encounter in multicultural societies and cities. The focus on ethnic minority businesses in a time of austerity, post-Brexit uncertainty and policy retrenchment makes this a particularly timely and important project. Through an interdisciplinary and mixed methods approach, we will gain a three-dimensional portrait of this important sector at a crucial moment and also, importantly, locate this within a fourth dimension - of change over time. The project team uniquely brings over 80 years' experience of research and writing in the field: on ethnicity and migration (Alexander, Chatterji), Bangladeshi identity and diaspora (Alexander, Chatterji, Carey); Brick Lane and Banglatown (Alexander, Carey); the restaurant trade (Carey); urbanism and ordinary streets (Hall); ethnography and visual methods (Alexander, Hall). Alexander and Chatterji's recent AHRC funded interdisciplinary research on the formation of the Bengal diaspora in Britain, Carey's unrivalled involvement with the restaurateurs of Brick Lane over 25 years, and Hall's methodologically and empirically ground-breaking visual and spatial analysis of London's multi-cultural economies, in particular, promise new insights into the everyday life of Brick Lane at a moment of significant change and challenge. Our dissemination strategies promise to maximise impact locally and nationally, through our advisory group, drawn from leading figures in the media, government, business and policy sectors. The project thus promises original and significant contributions to empirical data, theoretical frameworks, methodological practice, policy and dissemination.

伦敦陶尔哈姆莱茨区的布里克巷是英国最具标志性的街道之一，25 年来一直是孟加拉镇咖喱屋的代名词。布里克巷/孟加拉镇也许是城市复兴和通过美食打造民族品牌的最著名例子，这里的餐厅和一年一度的节日吸引了数十万游客。然而，随着替代食品和零售业务的激增以及中产阶级化的加剧，这条曾经标志性的街道的身份现在正在被抹去。由于市场过度扩张和多样化、移民控制以及教育和就业方面的代际转变，该行业内部也存在变化和挑战。这项民族志研究将通过深入关注布里克巷及其周边地区的餐饮业来探讨孟加拉敦面临的挑战和变化。该项目采用历史、视觉、定量和定性数据的创新组合，将绘制布里克巷随时间和今天的变化面貌。它将追溯孟加拉镇自作为 20 世纪 80 年代城市复兴计划的一部分出现至今的发展历程，并将其作为伦敦印度食品和餐馆悠久历史的一部分，与帝国、移民和贸易联系在一起。这种小规模和空间有限的分析将为更广泛的问题和紧张局势提供独特的视角：侨民、移民和定居；种族、不平等和劳动力市场；文化、消费和经济；宗教、性别和世代；全球城市的多元文化、欢乐和日常实践。虽然重点主要集中在布里克巷的孟加拉国餐馆业，但该项目将以此为起点，考虑这个边缘化的宗教和少数民族社区、英国价值数十亿英镑的印度食品零售业以及普通街道生活中更广泛的文化、社会和经济转型过程所面临的变化和挑战。迄今为止，还没有深入的民族志研究全面考虑印度餐饮业不断变化的性质、空间在塑造民族企业中的作用，以及它们作为多元文化社会和城市中全球品牌、互动和相遇的场所的重要性。在紧缩、英国脱欧后的不确定性和政策紧缩时期对少数族裔企业的关注使这一项目显得尤为及时和重要。通过跨学科和混合方法的方法，我们将在关键时刻获得这个重要部门的三维肖像，而且重要的是，将其定位在第四个维度——随着时间的变化。该项目团队独特地带来了该领域 80 多年的研究和写作经验：种族和移民（Alexander、Chatterji）、孟加拉国身份和侨民（Alexander、Chatterji、Carey）；布里克巷和孟加拉敦（亚历山大、凯里）；餐饮业（凯里）；城市化与普通街道（大厅）；民族志和视觉方法（亚历山大，霍尔）。亚历山大和查特吉最近的 AHRC 资助了关于英国孟加拉侨民形成的跨学科研究，凯里在 25 年来对布里克巷餐馆老板的无与伦比的参与，以及霍尔在方法论和经验上对伦敦多元文化经济的突破性视觉和空间分析，特别是在重大变化和挑战时刻，为布里克巷的日常生活提供了新的见解。我们的传播策略承诺通过由媒体、政府、商业和政策部门的领军人物组成的咨询小组，在当地和全国范围内最大限度地发挥影响力。因此，该项目有望对经验数据、理论框架、方法实践、政策和传播做出原创性和重大贡献。

项目成果

Beyond Banglatown: continuity, change and new urban economies in Brick Lane

超越孟加拉敦：布里克巷的连续性、变革和新城市经济

• 发表时间: 2020
• 作者: Alexander, C.E.

The rise and fall of Brick Lane's 'Curry Capital'

布里克巷“咖喱之都”的兴衰

• DOI: 10.1111/1467-8322.12675
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Anthropology Today
• 影响因子: 1.3
• 作者: Carey S