Global Cities

Welcome to Global Cities, a photographic exploration of the post-colonial innercity. Photographic contributions @futurehackney @chasingthelight_67, @younghackney and Thank you to @ridleyroadmarket and @hackneyfilmoffice. Resources (Postcolonial Cities, A King, NY, USA 2009 / Edge Of Empire Jacobs 1996 / Global Cities).

East London is a postcolonial space connected to an imperial British past. “The postcolonial city, is connected to a more distant past: it is both informed and transformed by the “long” colonial histories that shape it, as well as by more recent patterns of migration, and the social dynamics tied in with these, which are in turn often linked directly or indirectly to the colonial past.” (King 2009; McLeod 2004; Varma 2011). Photograph FH Global Cities. Actor Samba Ridley Road.

“The term postcolonial cities refers to those capitals or major cities of the one-time imperial metropoles, such as London, not only because of the large postcolonial populations they have attracted following the formal end of empire and independence of what were previously colonies, but also because people from these ex- colonies…have made their lives in those [capital] cities….” (A King, NY, USA 2009) Photograph by @younghackney / Global Cities. Actor Ya Ret Ridley Road

“Which groups migrate and where they migrate – is structured around the very specific relations of power, labour exploitation and obligation generated by imperialism” (Edge of Empire Jacobs 1996) Photograph Future Hackney / Global Cities Actor Adila Ridley Road

“The local and the global are not set apart, but seen as constantly soliciting one another.” ((Homi Bhabha ) (Edge of Empire Jacobs1996) Photograph Future Hackney / Global Cities Actor Harouna Ridley Road

“As world space is simultaneously global, histories of migration not only distinguish the population, politics, and culture of one postcolonial city from another but also from other ‘world’ or ‘global cities’……which groups migrate where, determines the cultural force of that city.” (A King, NY, USA 2009) Photograph Future Hackney / Global Cities. Actor Samuel Ridley Road

“One of the consequences of the development of a city is economic activity and advantage, a privilege of those in power. But it was not only made up of consumption in the strictest sense of money and commodity. The freedom of access to and enjoyment of space, was another means by which power was exercised by those who wielded it.” (A. King, NY, USA 2009) Photograph @chasingthelight_67 Global Cities.