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

伦敦塔哈姆莱斯区的砖巷是英国最具标志性的街道之一，25年来一直是邦拉敦咖喱屋的代名词。砖巷/邦拉顿可能是城市复兴和通过美食树立民族品牌的最著名的例子，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的激增，以及日益中产阶级化，这条曾经的标志性街道的身份现在正在被抹去。由于市场的过度扩张和多样化、移民控制以及教育和就业的代际转变，该部门内部也存在一些变化和挑战。这项民族志研究将通过深入关注Brick Lane及其周围的餐饮业，探索班拉特镇面临的挑战和变化。使用历史、视觉、定量和定性数据的创新组合，该项目将绘制Brick Lane随时间和今天不断变化的面貌。它将追溯邦拉特敦自20世纪80年代作为城市复兴计划的一部分出现到现在的发展，并将其作为伦敦印度食物和餐馆更长历史的一部分，与帝国、移民和贸易联系在一起。这一小规模和空间受限的分析将为更广泛的问题和围绕以下问题的紧张局势提供独特的视角：侨民、移民和定居；族裔、不平等和劳动力市场；文化、消费和经济；宗教、性别和代际；多元文化主义、欢乐和全球城市的日常做法。虽然重点主要放在Brick Lane的孟加拉国餐饮业，但该项目将以此为起点，考虑这个被边缘化的宗教和少数民族社区、英国数十亿英镑的印度食品零售业所面临的变化和挑战，以及普通街道生活中更广泛的文化、社会和经济转型过程。到目前为止，还没有深入的民族志研究，从整体上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，以及它们作为一个全球品牌、互动和在多元文化社会和城市中相遇的地方的重要性。在财政紧缩、退欧后的不确定性和政策紧缩的情况下，将重点放在少数族裔企业上，使这一项目变得尤为及时和重要。通过跨学科和混合方法，我们将在关键时刻获得这一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--随着时间的推移而变化。项目团队独一无二地带来了该领域80多年的研究和写作经验：种族与移民(亚历山大，查特吉)，孟加拉人身份和散居国外(亚历山大，查特吉，凯里)；砖巷和邦拉顿(亚历山大，凯里)；餐饮业(凯里)；都市主义与普通街道(霍尔)；民族志和视觉方法(亚历山大，霍尔)。Alexander和Chatterji最近的AHRC资助了对散居在英国的孟加拉人的形成的跨学科研究，Carey在25年与Brick Lane餐馆老板的无与伦比的参与，以及Hall对伦敦多元文化经济的方法和经验上的开创性视觉和空间分析，特别是，在一个重大变化和挑战的时刻，有望对Brick Lane的日常生活有新的见解。我们的传播策略承诺通过我们的顾问小组，最大限度地提高当地和全国的影响，顾问小组由媒体、政府、企业和政策部门的重要人物组成。因此，该项目承诺对经验数据、理论框架、方法实践、政策和传播作出原创性的重大贡献。

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.