Performing the Civic Transnational: Cultural Production, Governance, and Citizenship in Contemporary London

Abstract

When Ken Livingstone began his victory speech on being elected Mayor of London in 2000, he opened his remarks with the wry comment, ‘As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted fourteen years ago […]’ (‘Livingstone’). The humor of the line, as those familiar with the history of politics in the United Kingdom will know, arose from the fact that ‘Red Ken’ had been the leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) in 1986 when it was abolished by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative national government. Livingstone’s GLC administration had been a populist, left-wing thorn in the side of Thatcher’s government and his election as mayor, overseeing a newly formed Greater London Authority (GLA), capped a remarkable political comeback. It also marked the return of London-wide local government after nearly a decade and a half of absence.

In recent years London has risen to become what is almost certainly the world’s top business centre […]. But a purely commercial focus risks losing sight of what has made London successful. The dramatic growth of its finance and business services industries in the last thirty years draws on wider resources. London is now, and has always been, the crossroads of world trade and world culture. Its financial success is built on this foundation.

Ken Livingstone, Former Mayor of London (London Development Agency, A Cultural Audit: 2)

I would like to thank Jen Harvie, Louisa Pearson, and Nick Ridout for their contributions to the development of this chapter.