Canines or Canaries? An archaeology of the Isle of Dogs' contemporary past

Using the example of the Isle of Dogs (London), I seek to investigate the contested use of the past in the present. I consider the various discourse of 'history' and 'heritage' and radically interrogate the normative past that is constituted by these methods of re-presentation utilising an archaeology of the contemporary past. With this methodology I demonstrate how, by considering the Isle of Dogs as a contemporary archaeological site, we might be better able to understand the structures of power in the present that rely on constructed and idealized pasts.