“People gotta understand how politics works”: political parties, the local state, and urban regeneration in Haringey, London

Local governance in the United Kingdom is undergoing significant transition. Simultaneously, large scale urban regeneration has become a norm in British cities. Led by local states, regeneration continues unabated even amidst strong resistance by impacted communities. At its core, then, this research sets out to understand how and why such schemes can continue. It does so by mapping out a case study of the London Borough of Haringey and its deep entanglements with the ruling political faction: the Labour Party. To do so, the research links together Bruff’s (2014) articulation of authoritarian neoliberalism, critical perspectives on the Labour Party, and contemporary theory of the local state, drawing chiefly on Ormerod (2021). This linkage stresses the importance of dominant political parties, particularly in one-party local states (like Haringey) that characterise much of British local governance. Focusing in on the local state also not only highlights its relevance to contemporary urban development, but also its dependence on—and entanglements with—political parties.

The analysis also considers resistance to the state. I explore three relevant case studies: two regeneration schemes (High Road West and the Haringey Development Vehicle) and one historical example of a group of council estate tenants organising for better conditions on their estate (Broadwater Farm). Resistance is explored through the lens of acts of citizenship as coined by Isin (2008) and its development as accommodative acts (Jakimów 2022). Accommodative acts were necessary for Broadwater Farm residents because of Thatcher’s illiberal and managerial governance.

In sum, the project argues for the following. First, in cases of dominance of a state by one party, I contend scholars must expand their view of the state to include that party—into what I call a ‘state-party nexus.’ Relegating the party risks overlooking who actually governs. Second, scholars should pay greater attention to quiet activism, especially as states increasingly utilise illiberal and authoritarian forms of governance. Among a significant and international crises of democracy, scholars must think of new ways to defend and understand it. This project thus adds to such voices and calls for new and radical ways of ensuring (local) governance works for all.