Adam Elliott-Cooper | King's College London (original) (raw)

Papers by Adam Elliott-Cooper

Research paper thumbnail of Legacies: RACE TODAY’S POLITICAL LEGACY: REMEMBERING HOW BRITAIN CAME TO US

Research paper thumbnail of The four stages of moral panic

Research paper thumbnail of All-out war

Research paper thumbnail of Violence Old and New: From Slavery to Serco

Research paper thumbnail of Marxist interventions into contemporary debates

This special issue responds to ongoing debates around what has been termed ‘identity politics’. W... more This special issue responds to ongoing debates around what has been termed ‘identity politics’. We aim to intervene in what are make-or-break questions for the Left today. Specifically, we wish to provoke further interrogative but comradely conversation that works towards breaking-down the wedge between vulgar economism and vulgar culturalism. Critically, we maintain that just as all identity categories are spatially and temporally contingent – socially constructed, yet naturalised – so too is this current bifurcation between ‘class politics’ and ‘identity politics’. Ultimately, we call for an intellectual and organisational embracing of the complexity of identity as it figures in contemporary conditions; being a core organising-principle of capitalism as it functions today, a paradigm that Leftist struggle can be organised through and around – and yet all with a recognition of the necessity of historicising, and ultimately abolishing, these categories along with capitalism itself.

Research paper thumbnail of Black masculinity and criminalisation

Research paper thumbnail of Black resistance to British policing

Research paper thumbnail of Empire's Endgame

Research paper thumbnail of Sold out? The right-to-buy, gentrification and working-class displacements in London

The Sociological Review

Since the 1990s, the renewal of council housing estates in London has involved widespread ‘decant... more Since the 1990s, the renewal of council housing estates in London has involved widespread ‘decanting’ of resident populations to allow for demolition and redevelopment, primarily by private developers who sell the majority of new housing at market rate. This process of decanting has displaced long-term council tenants and shorter-term ‘temporary’ tenants, with many not able to return to the estate. In contrast, those leaseholders who bought under the ‘right-to-buy’ legislation introduced in the 1980s have a ‘right to remain’ by virtue of the property rights they have. Nonetheless, given the threat that their property will ultimately be subject to compulsory purchase because the redevelopment of the estate is in the ‘public interest’, these leaseholders experience similar displacement pressures to other residents. Describing these pressures, this article argues that the right-to-buy legislation offered these residents the illusion of entering a property-owning middle-class, but that ...

Research paper thumbnail of Paris-Londres: Music Migrations (1962–1989). Palais de la Porte Doree, Paris. 6 euros. Until 5 January 2020

Research paper thumbnail of Moving beyond Marcuse: Gentrification, displacement and the violence of un-homing

Progress in Human Geography

Displacement has become one of the most prominent themes in contemporary geographical debates, us... more Displacement has become one of the most prominent themes in contemporary geographical debates, used to describe processes of dispossession and forced eviction at a diverse range of scales. Given its frequent deployment in studies describing the consequences of gentrification, this paper seeks to better define and conceptualise displacement as a process of un-homing, noting that while gentrification can prompt processes of eviction, expulsion and exclusion operating at different scales and speeds, it always ruptures the connection between people and place. On this basis – and recognising displacement as a form of violence – this paper concludes that the diverse scales and temporalities of displacement need to be better elucidated so that their negative emotional, psychosocial and material impacts can be more fully documented, and resisted.

Research paper thumbnail of 'Free, decolonised education': a lesson from the South African student struggle

This commentary places British geography within transnational currents of student-focused decolon... more This commentary places British geography within transnational currents of student-focused decolonisation movements. In October 2015, the author travelled to South Africa for the first time, visiting Witwatersrand University (Johannesburg), University of Cape Town (UCT) and Rhodes University in Grahamstown. This paper draws on historical accounts of the British colonisation of what is now South Africa, contextualising both the domestic and global inequalities which it's students are currently challenging. British imperial history also provides a basis for understanding the roots of British geography, offering the campaigns to decolonise the South African university as an opportunity to critically reflect on how our own discipline produces knowledge. The commentary asks this timely question: as geographers, particularly those based in the old centre of Empire, how can our work be used to dismantle the colonialism our discipline has been implicated in since its formal inception?

Research paper thumbnail of Legacies: RACE TODAY’S POLITICAL LEGACY: REMEMBERING HOW BRITAIN CAME TO US

Research paper thumbnail of The four stages of moral panic

Research paper thumbnail of All-out war

Research paper thumbnail of Violence Old and New: From Slavery to Serco

Research paper thumbnail of Marxist interventions into contemporary debates

This special issue responds to ongoing debates around what has been termed ‘identity politics’. W... more This special issue responds to ongoing debates around what has been termed ‘identity politics’. We aim to intervene in what are make-or-break questions for the Left today. Specifically, we wish to provoke further interrogative but comradely conversation that works towards breaking-down the wedge between vulgar economism and vulgar culturalism. Critically, we maintain that just as all identity categories are spatially and temporally contingent – socially constructed, yet naturalised – so too is this current bifurcation between ‘class politics’ and ‘identity politics’. Ultimately, we call for an intellectual and organisational embracing of the complexity of identity as it figures in contemporary conditions; being a core organising-principle of capitalism as it functions today, a paradigm that Leftist struggle can be organised through and around – and yet all with a recognition of the necessity of historicising, and ultimately abolishing, these categories along with capitalism itself.

Research paper thumbnail of Black masculinity and criminalisation

Research paper thumbnail of Black resistance to British policing

Research paper thumbnail of Empire's Endgame

Research paper thumbnail of Sold out? The right-to-buy, gentrification and working-class displacements in London

The Sociological Review

Since the 1990s, the renewal of council housing estates in London has involved widespread ‘decant... more Since the 1990s, the renewal of council housing estates in London has involved widespread ‘decanting’ of resident populations to allow for demolition and redevelopment, primarily by private developers who sell the majority of new housing at market rate. This process of decanting has displaced long-term council tenants and shorter-term ‘temporary’ tenants, with many not able to return to the estate. In contrast, those leaseholders who bought under the ‘right-to-buy’ legislation introduced in the 1980s have a ‘right to remain’ by virtue of the property rights they have. Nonetheless, given the threat that their property will ultimately be subject to compulsory purchase because the redevelopment of the estate is in the ‘public interest’, these leaseholders experience similar displacement pressures to other residents. Describing these pressures, this article argues that the right-to-buy legislation offered these residents the illusion of entering a property-owning middle-class, but that ...

Research paper thumbnail of Paris-Londres: Music Migrations (1962–1989). Palais de la Porte Doree, Paris. 6 euros. Until 5 January 2020

Research paper thumbnail of Moving beyond Marcuse: Gentrification, displacement and the violence of un-homing

Progress in Human Geography

Displacement has become one of the most prominent themes in contemporary geographical debates, us... more Displacement has become one of the most prominent themes in contemporary geographical debates, used to describe processes of dispossession and forced eviction at a diverse range of scales. Given its frequent deployment in studies describing the consequences of gentrification, this paper seeks to better define and conceptualise displacement as a process of un-homing, noting that while gentrification can prompt processes of eviction, expulsion and exclusion operating at different scales and speeds, it always ruptures the connection between people and place. On this basis – and recognising displacement as a form of violence – this paper concludes that the diverse scales and temporalities of displacement need to be better elucidated so that their negative emotional, psychosocial and material impacts can be more fully documented, and resisted.

Research paper thumbnail of 'Free, decolonised education': a lesson from the South African student struggle

This commentary places British geography within transnational currents of student-focused decolon... more This commentary places British geography within transnational currents of student-focused decolonisation movements. In October 2015, the author travelled to South Africa for the first time, visiting Witwatersrand University (Johannesburg), University of Cape Town (UCT) and Rhodes University in Grahamstown. This paper draws on historical accounts of the British colonisation of what is now South Africa, contextualising both the domestic and global inequalities which it's students are currently challenging. British imperial history also provides a basis for understanding the roots of British geography, offering the campaigns to decolonise the South African university as an opportunity to critically reflect on how our own discipline produces knowledge. The commentary asks this timely question: as geographers, particularly those based in the old centre of Empire, how can our work be used to dismantle the colonialism our discipline has been implicated in since its formal inception?