Phil Cohen (cultural theorist)
From race to regeneration (1992–2012)
From race to regeneration (1992–2012\)
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Cohen moved to the University of East London (UEL) in 1992 to set up and direct the Centre for New Ethnicities Research (CNER). The centre embarked on a programme of research and community engagement in East London around issues of popular racism and cultural identity. This included curating *Rich Mix* (2001\), an exhibition of multicultural art in Tower Hamlets and a major conference *Front Lines, Backyards* (1998\) which explored issues surrounding changing identifications people might make when confronted by when confronted by rapid social and demographic change. Research projects included ethnographic studies of frontline situations of racial conflict in East London, a funded research programme on young people’s perceptions of class, gender and ethnicity in two areas of London and Hamburg whose results were published as *Finding the Way Home* (2004\); The centre organised a programme of talks and working papers, some of which was published in *New Ethnicities, Old Racisms*. The Centre's work was influential, especially in directing attention to the deeper, more unconscious, reaches of the popular racist imagination. However the use of psychoanalytic and anthropological concepts to understand the interplay of myth, ritual and phantasy in the construction of "common sense" racist narratives was controversial, especially among Marxist critics, who took this work to be symptomatic of [false consciousness](/wiki/False_consciousness "False consciousness") and an issue of *[Race and Class](/wiki/Race_and_Class "Race and Class")* was devoted to attacking the Centre's work.

In 2004, Cohen set up and co\-directed the London East Research Institute (LERI), with the aim of co\-ordinating the university's research on the regeneration of East London, which was gathering pace at this time and included UEL's new campus in the [Royal Docks](/wiki/Royal_Albert_Dock%2C_London "Royal Albert Dock, London"). Initially the research concentrated on the [Thames Gateway](/wiki/Thames_Gateway "Thames Gateway"), the largest regeneration project in Europe at the time and this led to the publication of *London's Turning*, a collection of studies of different aspects of the eastwards turn in London's growth. With the announcement of London's bid for the 2012 Olympic Games and the decision to locate the main venue at Stratford, East London, the focus of LERI's work inevitably shifted to evaluating the impact on local communities of the rapid transformation of the area from industrial and residential use to hosting a world mega\-event. Cohen conducted an ethnographic study of tunnellers and construction workers in the initial Dig, Design and Demolish phase and established ongoing focus groups with local residents and young people to chart their response to the unfolding impact of the Olympic project. This material formed the basis of his book *On the Wrong Side of the Track: East London and the Post Olympics?* in which Cohen explores the rhetoric and reality of the 2012 Olympic project and a follow\-up study features in *London 2012 and the Post Olympic City: a hollow Legacy?* (2017\). This concern with the Olympic Legacy inspired the Groundbreakers, an immersive trail and online guide telling the back story the Olympic Park site from the bronze age to the digital age.


What is the Olympic Legacy according to Cohen?