Rowland Atkinson

How London was bought and sold by the Super-Rich, and what it means for the rest of us Who owns London? Today, the city is the epicentre of the world’s financial markets, an elite cultural hub, and a place to hide one’s wealth. In Alpha City, Rowland Atkinson tells the story of eager developers, sovereign wealth, and grasping politicians, all of which paved the way for the plutocratic colonisation of the cityscape. Atkinson moves through the gated communities and the mega-houses of the urban elite, charting how the rich live and their influence on the disturbing rise in evictions and displacements from the city. The book, fully updated, also looks at the capital’s prospects in the aftermath of Brexit and the pandemic, showing how the super-rich may capitalise on the crisis, increasing inequality and hardship.

How London Was Captured by the Super-Rich

Alpha City

Gary Bridge

Gentrification, a process of class neighbourhood upgrading, is being identified in a broader range of urban contexts throughout the world. This text brings together the most recent theoretical and empirical research on gentrification at a global scale.

The New Urban Colonialism

Gentrification in a Global Context

Written in a unique format, Shades of Deviance is a turbo-driven guide to crime and deviance, offering 56 politically engaged, thought-provoking and accessibly written accounts of a wide range of socially and legally prohibited acts. This book will be essential reading for undergraduate students in the fields of criminology and sociology and those preparing to embark on degree courses in these fields, as well as general readers. Written by field-leading experts from across the globe and designed for those who want a clear and exciting introduction to the complex areas of crime and deviance, this book provides a large number of short overviews of a wide range of social problems, harms and criminal acts. Offering a series of cutting-edge and critical treatments of issues such as war and murder, paedophilia, ecocide, human experimentation, stalking and sexting, this book also gives a guide to further readings and suggestions for other media to develop the reader’s understanding of these issues. Shades of Deviance requires readers to critically reconsider their ideas about what is right and wrong, about what is socially harmful and which problems we should focus our attention on. It also provides careful analysis and reasoned explanation of complex issues in a world in which sensationalist headlines, anxiety and fear about crime permeate our lives - read it to be prepared!

A Primer on Crime, Deviance and Social Harm

Shades of Deviance

Keith Jacobs

By taking aim at the ‘property machine’ and its opposition to the social and everyday needs of the majority of the population, the authors analyse some of the key social and economic forces and the broad range of policies that have shaped and responded to Britain’s housing crisis. Before concluding with a series of innovative proposals that would allow for the establishment of a fairer and more equal society and a more stable economic future.

What Do We Know and What Should We Do About Housing?

Written in a unique format, Shades of Deviance is a turbo-driven guide to crime and deviance, offering 56 politically engaged, thought-provoking and accessibly written accounts of a wide range of socially and legally prohibited acts. This book will be essential reading for undergraduate students in the fields of criminology and sociology and those preparing to embark on degree courses in these fields, as well as general readers. Written by field-leading experts from across the globe and designed for those who want a clear and exciting introduction to the complex areas of crime and deviance, this book provides a large number of short overviews of a wide range of social problems, harms and criminal acts. Offering a series of cutting-edge and critical treatments of issues such as war and murder, paedophilia, ecocide, human experimentation, stalking and sexting, this book also gives a guide to further readings and suggestions for other media to develop the reader's understanding of these issues. Shades of Deviance requires readers to critically reconsider their ideas about what is right and wrong, about what is socially harmful and which problems we should focus our attention on. It also provides careful analysis and reasoned explanation of complex issues in a world in which sensationalist headlines, anxiety and fear about crime permeate our lives - read it to be prepared!

Julian Dobson

Urban Crisis, Urban Hope recognises that our cities are in crisis. It resurrects the concept of the city and its neighbourhoods as a crucible for new ideas and a site of innovative action, recognising the desperate need for support, resources and complementary visions at urban and national scales. The collection of essays brings together leading thinkers and doers from across the spectrum of policy and practice to present both critical analysis and an agenda for action, showing how government and public services not only can be agents of hope, but must be if our cities are to thrive.

A Policy Agenda for UK Cities

Urban Crisis, Urban Hope

Gentrification, a process of class neighbourhood upgrading, is being identified in a broader range of urban contexts throughout the world. This book throws new light and evidence to bear on a subject that deeply divides commentators on its worth and social costs given its ability to physically improve areas but also to displace indigenous inhabitants. Gentrification in a Global Perspective brings together the most recent theoretical and empirical research on gentrification at a global scale. Each author gives an overview of gentrification in their country so that each chapter retains a unique approach but tackles a common theme within a shared framework. The main feature of the book is a critical and well-written set of chapters on a process that is currently undergoing a resurgence of interest and one that shows no sign of abating.

Sarah Blandy

This informative volume gathers contemporary accounts of the growth, influences on, and impacts of so-called gated communities, developments with walls, gates, guards and other forms of surveillance. While gated communities have become a common feature of the urban landscape in South Africa, Latin and North America, it is also clear that there is now significant interest in gated living in the European and East Asian urban context. The chapters in this book investigate issues and communities such as: gated communities in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires, Argentina planning responses to gated communities in Canada who segregates whom? The analysis of a gated community in Mendoza, Argentina sprawl and social segregation in southern California. These illustrative chapters enable the reader to understand more about the social and economic forces that have lead to gating, the ways in which gated communities are managed, and their wider effects on both residents and those living outside the gates. This book was previously published as a special issue of the journal Housing Studies.

International Perspectives

Gated Communities

How London was bought and sold by the Super-Rich, and what it means for the rest of us Who owns London? In recent decades, it has fallen into the hands of the super-rich. It is today the essential "World City" for High-Net-Worth Individuals and Ultra-High-Net-Worth Individuals. Compared to New York or Tokyo, the two cities that bear the closest comparison, it has the largest number of wealthy people per head of population. Taken as a whole, London is the epicentre of the world's finance markets, an elite cultural hub, and a place to hide one's wealth. Rowland Atkinson presents a history of the property boom economy, going back to the end of Empire. It tells the story of eager developers, sovereign wealth and grasping politicians, all paving the way for the wealthy colonisation of the cityscape. The consequences of this transformation of the capital for capital is the brutal expulsion of the urban poor, austerity, cuts, demolitions, and a catalogue of social injustices. This Faustian pact has resulted in the sale and destruction of public assets, while the rich turn a blind eye toward criminal money laundering to feather their own nests. Alpha City moves from gated communities and the mega-houses of the super-rich to the disturbing rise of evictions and displacements from the city. It shows how the consequences of widening inequality have an impact on the urban landscape.

Rowland Atkinson

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