Roger Burrows on studying the super-rich

My colleague and collaborator Roger Burrows, who is now at Goldsmiths, has a post on the LSE blog that describes his forthcoming project exploring the lives of the super-rich. The project team includes my colleague Rowland Atkinson. They are exploring the ‘territory and consumption’ of this hyper-wealthy group of global elites. The project looks like its going to be really important. The links to culture come in what Roger describes as the ‘soft’ connections to neighbourhoods. The project team are using a combination of methods. They are starting though by using postcode level classifications to isolate the places where they might find these super-rich. They are then going to work towards an understanding of this group and there apparent defensive social withdrawal. There will also be an attempt to link the activities of these groups to questions of power and capitalism. Just what is needed. This is an amazing research team, I can’t wait to see what they produce.