Rising East Essays

London's Economy in the Long Recession

2010-03-10T10:00:00Z

This essay rows against the prevailing tide of economic policy analysis. Following on from his inaugural Rising East Essay, Gavin Poynter offers further insight into the inherent and systemic weaknesses of contemporary capital and, in particular, the UK’s current form of capitalism. He begins with a brief review of the analyses offered by two of the most useful contributors on the current economic malaise, Graeme Turner and Martin Wolf. He then examines the current state of the most successful region of the UK economy in recent years, London, arguing that the strong position of the capital city and its hinterland is, paradoxically, indicative of the weakness of the UK economy as a whole. Finally, his essay concludes with some projections concerning the social consequences of what looks set to be a long recession for London and the UK. Full essay

Turning to Flirting: Politics and the Pleasures of Boris Johnson

2010-02-17T00:10:00Z

In the aftermath of Valentine’s Day, Candy Yates reviews the romantic attachment between London’s voters and their teddy bear Mayor, Boris Johnson.

Flirting with the electorate, Dr Yates points out, is what politicians are increasingly inclined to do now that there is little or no ideological commitment in their relation to policy, or their relationship to the voting public. Full essay

The Politics of Arts and Events. Fostering Cohesion in Tower Hamlets

2010-02-01T00:10:00Z

Judith Burnett and Erika Cudworth

State sponsored cultural events are now expected to contribute to ‘community cohesion’. But what does this mean and how can it be evaluated?

Commissioned by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to assess the contribution to community cohesion made by the festivals which it supports, Judith Burnett and Erika Calvo report on the evaluation they made and the research process which enabled them to make it. They also comment on the role of cultural events and on ‘community cohesion’ as a policy objective. Full essay

Castles in the Sand: fairy tales of Dubai’s desert kingdom

2009-06-03T13:10:00Z

There is more than one Dubai, according to Gulf-based journalist Vicky Francis: (1) a distant place that few of us feel the need to find out about; (2) an instant idea which some Westerners identify with, and many more love to loathe – something like 1980s Essex on a much larger scale.

In her essay for Rising East, Vicky Francis shows how the mental mapping of Dubai bears little resemblance to the actual place; indeed the ‘Dubai of the mind’ further obscures the real problems facing the local population. Full essay

A Perfect Storm in London’s Magazine Publishing Industry

2009-05-22T13:10:00Z

These are tempestuous times for London’s magazine industry, as it tries to ride two dangerous currents at the same time: the ebbing away of capital due to recession; and the flow of information online.

In his overview of today’s hostile conditions, editorial consultant Richard Sharpe differentiates between these waves of change, and evaluates their combined effects on London’s magazine industry. One such effect, he concludes, is that many magazines may be ripped out of London and moved elsewhere. Full essay

Behaviour versus Structure: how to understand the economy and its current crisis

2009-05-13T13:10:00Z

This week’s issue is an exchange of views on economic recession and the best available methods for understanding it. Leigh Caldwell, chief executive of research consultancy Inon, recommends behavioural economics. Stuart Derbyshire, senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Birmingham, remains unconvinced: he calls for a different kind of understanding which can encompass contradiction at all levels from the personal to the structural. Full text

Leigh Caldwell and Stuart Derbyshire will be among the speakers going head-to-head at the Post-G20 Public Summit: the Battle for the Economy, a conference produced by the Institute of Ideas at Goodenough College, London, on Saturday May 16th 2009. Other speakers include professors Steve Fuller and Frank Furedi, broadcaster Paul Mason, and Michael Skapinker, editor of special reports at the Financial Times.

Policing and the G20 Protests: Getting All Medieval On Their Ass?

2009-05-06T13:10:00Z

The G20 protests were ridiculous – just right for April Fool’s Day. In their analysis, Mark Beachill and Eryn Beynon demonstrate that the Financial Fools protest outside the Bank of England was a postmodern protest harking back to pre-modern Carnival. Meanwhile the police behaved like unreconstructed modernists, over-reacting to a threat of politicised unrest which no longer exists in the West. Subsequent reaction to police tactics has shown that their response really was out of time. Analysis

In a descriptive complement to this analysis, Thomas Sadler describes how he felt being there on the day, trying desperately to get elsewhere. Depiction

Cometh The Hour, Cometh Not The Green Man

2009-04-29T13:10:00Z

In this week’s essay, Dublin-based journalist Jason Walsh observes the lack of leadership in Ireland’s political scene.

London’s exposure to finance and its failures is by no means unique. Reviewing the economic problems facing his own green and pleasant land, Walsh puts them almost on a par with those of its near namesake, Iceland.

His main concern, however, is neither financial fallout nor the ensuing decline in surrounding economic sectors, but the failure of a new political outlook to make its appearance. The clock is ticking, but the hour of need has yet to be transcribed into political pressure.

Walsh’s observations on the political scene in Ireland particularly, complement those of Gavin Poynter, Sean Bell, and Andrew Calcutt, as to the general dearth of political leadership commensurate with today’s economic problems.

Cometh the hour, cometh not (yet) the man – neither in the UK nor Ireland. Full essay

Contriving Against Reality: the G20 summit and the empty shell of ExCel

2009-04-22T13:10:00.000-00:00

If Smeargate is Gordon Brown’s lowest point to date, the consensus is that the G20 summit was his highest. Andrew Calcutt’s iconoclastic essay, exposes the ExCel summit as paper-thin self-promotion, but at the same time true to the presentational economy of much of the Western world today.

His analysis suggests that the G20 summit was flat earth news fully in line with that part of the world from which the fundamentals of production have been abstracted.

The argument in Calcutt’s essay is in keeping with that of Gavin Poynter on the divergence of Eastern production from Western financialisation, and Sean Bell, on the possibility of counter-acting the alienation of different parts of the world economy from each other. In his eccentric contribution to this series, Andrew Calcutt also draws attention to the essay form. His rendition of it combines terse criticism with lingering recollection and imaginative speculation as to the effects of global forces on individuals who live and work in East London. Full essay

Reaching Top Gear: the potential for reciprocity in East-West motorcycle production

2009-04-15T12:10:00.000-00:00

Fear of Chinese production and dependence on Chinese capital – that has been the dual prospect faced by the finance-oriented West and exacerbated by recession. But the divergence between Eastern production and Western financialisation is neither complete nor irreversible. In his essay, Sean Bell uses the example of the global motorcycle industry to show that East and West each have their weaknesses in production, while both have much to gain from playing to each other’s strengths as producers. Motorcycle manufacturers in Europe and China, Japan and the USA, have already become co-producers. But Bell also observes that new levels of economic reciprocity demand a different kind of political initiative. Joint ventures in production become less plausible unless politicians venture to produce a new institutional framework for international relations, capable of accommodating an expanded social role for China. Full essay

The Crunch and the Crisis: the unravelling of lifestyle capitalism?

2009-04-08T13:01:00.000-00:00

Easter Rising

Welcome to Rising East Essays, the new incarnation of Rising East.

A new essay will be published each week from Easter to mid-July, with a second series of essays issued weekly from mid-September to mid-December.

The opening essay in this first series has been specially written for Rising East by Professor Gavin Poynter, chair of the London East Research Institute.

In ‘The Crunch and The Crisis: the unravelling of lifestyle capitalism?’, Professor Poynter weighs up the economic imbalance between West and East, noting that it remains largely unaddressed, not only in last year’s underestimation of ‘the credit crunch’, but even at the G20 summit which came to (East) London town earlier this month.

Contact: Andrew Calcutt, editor Rising East a.calcutt@uel.ac.uk