Alpha Cities: How to Research ‘Super Prime’ Urban Spaces and Those who Make and Own Them

This lecture offers a broad overview of the conceptual and methodological issues raised by doing research on elite cities and urban (primarily wealth) elites. It draws on experience over a decade of work on these issues in the London context, also offering international examples.

The lecturer will discuss urban political questions of capture, the effects on built environments of wealth inequalities (particularly in relation to more deprived groups) and the continuing relationship of cities to offshore capital flows by the super-rich and illicit capital.

The session will also include workshop discussion elements.

Learning Outcomes:

Attendees will be able to:

• Describe and understand the composition of the urban political economy as it relates to wealth inequalities and elite formations;
• Evaluate and debate critical topics relating to the presence, ownership and influence of elites on urban life;
• Identify appropriate methodological approaches to researching wealth and other urban elites;
• Deploy and combine these skills in their own research.