Suggested Sell: In one of London’s highest boroughs for inequality, a team of researchers quietly advocate for connection in a time of fracture…
Bustling markets and preachers in Whitechapel, the endless stream of young creatives in Shoreditch, Brick Lane and its infamous history as a centre for British-Bangladeshi heritage and art… Canary Wharf with its looming neon in the distance – Tower Hamlets is undeniably diverse.
And diverse in many ways too, the borough isn’t without issue, despite the economic forecasts of areas like Canary Wharf, with JP Morgan having finalised plans for the largest office building in London, or the under construction North Quay, the borough has stark challenges in inequality across its areas, from Poplar to Bethnal Green, according to the Trust for London in 2021.
Although, amidst one of London’s most unequal boroughs, for some organisations diversity presents an opportunity.
“Borderlines”, an interdisciplinary research collective based in the School of Business and Management at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), inspire local initiatives to bring voices together for the sake of co-operative growth centering around an idea of “inclusive growth” across communities.
Dr. Mayra Castro, Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Leadership at QMUL and director of Borderlines, said:
“I see the role of Borderlines as a facilitator really, as the glue that brings different people together.”
Dr. Castro added:
“We decided we need to go out there and connect with our local community and I think [with] this project on ‘inclusive growth’, we set the basis to do that.”
She described “inclusive growth” as a term that had organically developed from talking to real people within the community.
While some people dismissed “inclusive growth” or saw a buzzword, others said it meant strengthening their neighbourhood through reachable goals and co-operation.
Dr. Castro said:
“They simply say, you know, our aspiration is to become a cooperative or an employee […] Something very, very tangible.”
“Sometimes it’s just a matter of asking, ‘What do you want or what do you need?’,”
Dr. Castro added.
They found inspiration in the city was plentiful, whether on topics of the environment, women’s participation in the labour market or entrepreneurship. Dr. Castro added:
“London is such a rich place […] There is so much going on.”
From local collectives of community leaders like BritBangla, or the Oitij-jo collective which celebrate diaspora success, to spaces like Whitechapel gallery which, Dr. Castro said, provided stronger, healthier, local communities.
“Inclusive growth” grew into a meaning of healthy, local-based communities, inspired by Tower Hamlets’ diversity to create an area where heritage powers an increase in living standards through liaison, listening, and advocating.
She added that raising awareness of success would be a huge factor in boosting “inclusive growth”, leading to reduced inequality through supporting small economic businesses and collectives.
Although, so far the project hasn’t been without hiccups, Dr. Castro felt she had to earn the trust of residents, at least initially,
Dr. Castro said:
“I think they might have had bad experiences before. Or the impression is that as researchers, we are going to go there, interview them, take their time, write our findings, publish our papers, and then forget about it. […] But I think one of the challenges I have faced with this project is trust really.”
Dr. Castro added:
“I don’t want to say there is a lack of trust, but it’s challenging to establish trust on research and researchers from the community perspective. […] although, the team was working through the issue by working with leaders in the area, with seminars in the past, and planned in the future.”
Previously, North of the borough’s border with Hackney a walking seminar focused on a history of activism, migration, and specifically Turkish women migrants, offering an understanding of the past to put the present into clarity for its current, diverse set of residents.
Dr. Castro said:
“The event was very successful. It attracted a lot of attention, was oversubscribed… We had to ask people not to come.”
Another project involved nine to 10 seminars with universities in Canada on approaching race within Artificial Intelligence (AI) with hundreds of online participants – all in the context of business management.
Dr. Castro said:
“[Last year] We hosted a seminar series on research on race, for example, recognising that race is usually a topic or theme that business and management schools don’t want to engage with seriously or fully right?”
On Hackney’s seminar, Dr. Castro said:
“So we had this group of people walking in Hackney, different roads, markets, different spaces where migrant women have been, you know, of course, labourers, but also activists and organisers, community organisers […] The event was attended even by representatives of local services such as health.”
Dr. Castro added:
“We had very positive feedback. in the borough. And they told us that even though they had worked at Hackney for many years they had never experienced Hackney in that way.”
After the collaboration with Canadian universities, an annual “Global Dialogue Series” was created, with plans to discuss topics on the cultural fringe of business management. Dr. Castro added:
“[This year we picked] The colonial perspectives on AI [… we were] thinking about whose voices are not included, whose voices are being left out, thinking, for example, of indigenous knowledge, that might not be digitalized and therefore not being picked by those AI tools.”
Dr. Castro added:
“And then we always think, you know, who is not being seen, right, who is being left out, who is being left behind, who is doing amazing work and it’s invisible […] So those are the topics we focus on. And those are the people we bring to the table here.”
On using seminars and panels as a tool to bring people together and ultimately, build the trust the organisation wants, Dr. Castro said:
“We do that by not only inviting academics to our events, but also we have great connections with activists and artists, right? So we want people to acquire knowledge, but also embody that knowledge through, for example, expressions of art.”
Connecting Communities & Young People
In 2025, Tower Hamlets, along with Hackney ranked as some of the most deprived boroughs regarding income deprivation for children, or the proportion of youths aged zero to 15 living in families dependent on state benefits or low-income working credits, according to Government statistics.
With Borderlines starting in late 2022 to early 2023 it’s a new initiative. Dr. Castro said:
“I think they [local residents] have the right to say, okay, we’re going to give you our time, we’re going to share our experience, we’re going to tell you stories, but what are you going to give me back?”
She added:
“I think as Borderlines what we need [is] to listen first, but also to give back to the community. It’s not about us, right? It’s not about our institution, even. It’s really about what we can do for the community.”
For now, it’s still early days for direct change, with the first stages being visibility, according to Dr Castro, although there were certain things that could help, especially through increasing connection with young East Londoners in which heritage can often be an inspiration.
Dr Castro said:
“How we can connect the students with those community-led organisations […] One of the main challenges of these organisations is they don’t have the human capability or the funding to hire people. But there are tons of students who would be happy to volunteer or to do unpaid work for these organisations.”
Dr. Castro added:
“So the question again is how we can facilitate that connection?”
Nationally, there’s decreasing youth clubs, more time spent at home, and an increasing broader trend of declining mental health. The issue of a “space” or third place for young people to socialise is often discussed in Borderlines, Dr. Castro believed introducing a place for younger people to meet was all part of “inclusive growth”.
For young Londoners, Dr. Castro said:
“There are structural, structural inequalities […] There are things that we cannot change as individuals on our own alone. But then it’s important to look around, right? And see what are the opportunities? What are the people with whom I can connect? And there’s always people you can connect with.”
Dr. Castro added:
“We can volunteer for these wonderful community-led organisations. We can support, we can clean our streets, we can fix that, we can advocate for this, we can get together and talk to the local borough, we can et cetera, et cetera […] from that position, It’s almost like internal power. I think things then start taking place, eventually these young people – with that mindset, they will find a job, they will secure an income, they will be able to provide for their families, they will be able to contribute to society, to their community.”
