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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores perceptions of 'islandness' among residents of London's Isle of Dogs amid ongoing private development, financialisation and social change. Lessons drawn engage with the concept of 'island' to examine critically the interplay between geographic, social and disciplinary boundaries.

Paper long abstract:

Affectionately referred to as 'The Island' by long-standing residents, the Isle of Dogs is bound by the River Thames and a series of interlocking quays. This geographically-distinct heart of London's Docklands had historically been home to a relatively homogeneous working-class community for nearly two centuries. Increased skilled migration alongside the proximal construction of the Canary Wharf financial hub, the policies of Thatcher's government, the broader financialisation of the British economy, and the area's integration with the rest of London, contributed to a period of precipitous social transformation. The ramifications of such processes remain evident on The Island some thirty years on. Successive social, political, and economic developments including the UK's divisive 2016 referendum vote to withdraw from the European Union and the 'alternative facts' phenomenon propagated by various processes continue to provide fodder for social anxieties and divergent epistemologies in the everyday lives of Island residents and workers. This paper explores how residents' perceptions of 'islandness' are produced, experienced, contested, and contingent on notions of difference given such ongoing processes of shifting geographic, socio-economic, and political terrains. It suggests that the concept of 'island' can be a useful theoretical tool not only for understanding local geo-social constructions of Island identity and community, but also for engaging with the many scales of wider epistemological and disciplinary systems of classification, categorisation, and boundaries used to arrive at that understanding. Using lessons drawn from the Isle of Dogs, the paper closes with a discussion of the impact that disciplinary bridges can have.