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Around the world, blue-collar politics have become associated with resistance to the multicultural. While this may also be true in Edinburgh, Scotland, a closer look reveals the growth of liberal democratic ideals in the working-class population, which has a much different goal: How can this European city keep the entrepreneurial forces of globalization from commodifying what is distinctly theirs? In Tenement Nation, Christa Ballard Tooley explores the battle for a neighborhood called the Canongate in Edinburgh's Old Town. Tooley's insightful study of the working-class Canongate community as they negotiate gentrification plans offers a complex view of class and nation. The threat of the Canongate's redevelopment motivated many throughout Edinburgh to lend their support to the residents' campaign. Against such development projects, alliances formed between upper-class heritage supporters and working-class urban residents, all of whom turned to institutions such as the European Union and UNESCO for support in restricting commercial development. Tenement Nation explores these negotiations between socioeconomic classes and even nationalities to show what Tooley calls a "working-class cosmopolitanism" in pursuit of social, economic, and political inclusion.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Working Out Class and Nation in Edinburgh
1. History, Heritage, and Politics in the Old Town
Interlude 1: On Conservation, Community, and Class
2. Depoliticizing Development: Neoliberal Urbanism and Caltongate
Interlude 2: A Shop in the Canongate
3. Saving the Old Town, One More Time: Ancient Concerns for Neoliberal Times
Interlude 3: Dumbiedykes
4. The Politics of Home
Interlude 4: Doocots and Community Land Use in Glasgow
5. Scottish Cosmopolitanism: From Neighborhood to Nation
Conclusion: Urban Scotland, Working-Class Politics, and National Futures
References
Index
About the author
Christa Ballard Tooley
