Alpha City (Paperback)

Rowland Atkinson

ISBN 10: 1788737989 / ISBN 13: 9781788737982

Published by Verso Books, London, 2021

About this Item

Paperback. 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, it has the largest number of wealthy people per head of population. Taken as a whole, London is the epicentre of the worlds finance markets, an elite cultural hub, and a place to hide ones wealth.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 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. How London was bought and sold by the Super-Rich, and what it means for the rest of us Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781788737982

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Alpha City (Paperback)
• Publisher: Verso Books, London
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1788737989
• ISBN 13: 9781788737982
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

Rowland Atkinson is Research Chair in Inclusive Societies at the University of Sheffield. His research has focused on the spatial impacts of social inequalities, taking in work on gentrification and displacement, gated communities, public housing and social exclusion, fortress homes and, of course, the super-rich. Seeing the role of social science to bring attention to social problems his work has highlighted the need for social housing and attention to the invisible casualties of complex urban processes. He is the author of Domestic Fortress (with Sarah Blandy) and Urban Criminology (with Gareth Millington).