Conclusion: Reflections and Directions

This book has aimed to answer questions relating to the City of London as an organisational setting, namely, what is it that makes the City so distinct; does geography matter to how it is perceived, and if so, how and why? What can we understand about how it is perceived, and by whom, and who? What and who, therefore, can be said to be ‘in place’ here? In response to these questions, this book has built on the body of work concerned with organisational space and place, by showing how a Lefebvrian reading of the production of space, combined with a methodology based on rhythmanalysis, can help to integrate meaning and materiality in order to better understand the lived experience of working in this place. This book positions the City as a performative accomplishment, which is essential for it to construct and perform its narratives of order and control. The price of belonging in the City is high; unless you are young, ambitious and able and willing to accept the performativity and cope with the relentless rhythms of the place, your only option is to ‘jog on’. This matters because it shows us that the City is, despite protestations to the contrary, still a place which is ruled by conditions of membership, just as the coffee houses and the private members’ clubs were in previous centuries. It may be a global melting pot in terms of the nationalities of the people working there, but diversity and equality are far from entrenched.