‘There’s nowhere wonky left to go’: Gentrification, queerness and class politics of inclusion in (East) London

Abstract

This article explores the class politics of inclusion. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork, I examine a community campaign organized to oppose the closure of a pub to make way for urban redevelopment and the local Council’s and property developers’ proposal to be ‘inclusive’ by planning a ‘replacement LGBT venue’ on its former site. Through this case study, the article shows the struggle surrounding the ‘norms of intelligibility’ imposed onto working-class and ‘queer’ expressions of sexuality in the attempt to gentrify a disadvantaged urban space. The article contributes to extant critical discussions of inclusion by unveiling the struggle surrounding the classed normative conditions attached to it. It further adds to queer perspectives on organization by showing how inclusion is predicated on ‘straightening up’ the ‘wonkiness’ of ‘queer(ness)’ in the pursuit of profit.