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Articles by Rowland Atkinson
The super-rich polluters
While millions of people make the effort to sort their recycling, buy fewer clothes, and generally make greener choices, the world’s wealthiest can emit the same amount of carbon as the average person does in a year by going on holiday just once. Among the many things worrying the climate-conscious is the question of the carbon-intensive movements of the super-rich -- classed as those with more than $30 million (£23 million) in disposable assets.
Africa: The Politics of the Hyper-Polluting Private Transport Used By the World's Super-Rich Is Hotting Up
While millions of people make the effort to sort their recycling, buy fewer clothes and generally make greener choices, the world's wealthiest can emit the same amount of carbon as the average person does in a year by going on holiday just once. Among the many things worrying the climate-conscious is the question of the carbon-intensive movements of the super-rich - classed as those with more than US$30 million (£23 million) in disposable assets.
The politics of the hyper-polluting private transport used by the world’s super-rich is hotting up
While millions of people make the effort to sort their recycling, buy fewer clothes and generally make greener choices, the world’s wealthiest can emit the same amount of carbon as the average person does in a year by going on holiday just once. Among the many things worrying the climate-conscious is the question of the carbon-intensive movements of the super-rich – classed as those with more than US$30 million (£23 million) in disposable assets.
The politics of the hyper-polluting private transport used by the world’s super-rich is hotting up Original
While millions of people make the effort to sort their recycling, buy fewer clothes and generally make greener choices, the world’s wealthiest can emit the same amount of carbon as the average person does in a year by going on holiday just once. Among the many things worrying the climate-conscious is the question of the carbon-intensive movements of the super-rich – classed as those with more than US$30 million (£23 million) in disposable assets.
The politics of the hyper-polluting private transport used by the world’s super-rich is hotting up
Roman Abramovich's super-yacht Eclipse. Bulent Demir/Shutterstock While millions of people make the effort to sort their recycling, buy fewer clothes and generally make greener choices, the world’s wealthiest can emit the same amount of carbon as the average person does in a year by going on holiday just once.
Millionaires may not be fleeing the UK in droves – but there are reasons these stories persist
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Millionaires may not be fleeing the UK in droves - but there are reasons these stories persist Original
News stories in recent months have claimed that more than 16,500 millionaires are expected to leave the UK in 2025 due to the country’s increasing tax burden. Notably, the abolition of “non-dom” tax rules has been touted as one of the reasons for this “millionaire flight”. It might seem that efforts to tax very wealthy residents is foolish – killing the goose that lays the golden egg. It is hard to overstate how important the topic of taxation is.
Invisible fish: The selective (dis)connection of elite Chinese gated community residents from urban public space
Get full access to this article View all access and purchase options for this article. References Anderson E (2012) The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company. Atkinson R (2008) The flowing enclave and the misanthropy of networked affluence. In: Blokland T, Savage M (eds) Networked Urbanism: Social Capital in the City. Farnham: Routledge, pp.42–58.
The UK’s coastal ‘ghost enclaves’ are the result of government failure on low-use homes
The UK has long been in the middle of a housing crisis. And yet, across the country, the number of low-use homes is growing. Housing experts like ourselves use the term “low-use” to refer both to unoccupied properties and to infrequently used second homes. Data from the 2021 census revealed 1.5 million unoccupied dwellings in England (6.1% of all dwellings) and 120,450 in Wales (8.2%).
Applying the global wealth chain typology to property purchases in the Liverpool and Merseyside Area
Introduction Existing theories of finance generally focus on deposit-taking institutions, equities trading and price formation, and underline the market-completing and welfare-enhancing functions provided by financial innovations (Allen and Santomero, 1997). We seek to go further and get behind the veils that mask the play of capital across nations, regions and urban areas, much of it orchestrated from offshore locations.
Libertecture: A catalogue of libertarian spaces
Introduction In this article we examine the relationship between the built environment and systems of social thinking. Our core argument here is that ideological frameworks, in this case a focus on libertarian thinking, may be made manifest in, or amplified by, specific spaces and architectural forms. This proposition rests on much older ideas in which the design of buildings, cities and patterns of urban life itself are seen to express or relay ideological currents.
From Stagflation to Stagffluence: the Hollowing Out of the Rentier Economy – Byline Times
As the cost of living crisis mounts, Rowland Atkinson and Andrew Baker look at the stagnation of wages and the rising polarisation between renters and owners of assets Share EmailTwitterFacebook In a year defined by a cost of living crisis causing enormous hardship, the sharply split experiences of affluent and straining households are characterised by a polarising form of stagffluence. Across the political spectrum on both right and left there is talk of a return to 1970s-style stagflation.
Necrotecture: Lifeless Dwellings and London's Super‐Rich
Abstract This article problematizes the relationship between the global super-rich and processes of property development that have generated large volumes of underused residential space. Evidence is presented to show that much of London's new skyline is underused or lies entirely empty, so that one interpretation of this new landscape of super-prime residential development is that it is a kind of dead residential space or necrotecture.
Offshore property ownership in Liverpool and Merseyside: the chains dragging value from depressed city economies
28 June, 2021 28 June, 2021 New research by Rex McKenzie and Rowland Atkinson shows the scale of inward offshore investment into Liverpool and the effects in the city. We have recently been working with Land Registry data on Overseas companies that own property in England and Wales. This fascinating data offers a glimpse into the private, offshore companies that own property in England and Wales.
How the super-rich conquered London
How the super-rich conquered London London is an “Alpha City”, declares Professor Rowland Atkinson. In this long read, he explores how PCL has become “a climate controlled place of comfort and support” for the world’s super-rich, and what that means for wider society… This content is available only to PrimeResi Professional Members. If you have a membership login below, otherwise join Prime Resi today for full access to the Journal of Luxury Property.
How the super rich conquered London
Over cups of tea in his ramshackle London home I chatted with a novelist. It felt a valuable opportunity, given his multiple fictional treatments of London, to discuss the city’s rapid changes that I was also writing about. Talk inevitably turned to its expanding population of wealthy residents. He told me that he had once thought about writing a novel about the super-rich, but concluded that it would ultimately be too boring. What could one say about people whose lives were not connected to others?
How the super rich conquered London
Credit: ZGPhotography/Shutterstock.com Over cups of tea in his ramshackle London home I chatted with a novelist. It felt a valuable opportunity, given his multiple fictional treatments of London, to discuss the city's rapid changes that I was also writing about. Talk inevitably turned to its expanding population of wealthy residents. He told me that he had once thought about writing a novel about the super-rich, but concluded that it would ultimately be too boring.
How the super rich conquered London
Over cups of tea in his ramshackle London home I chatted with a novelist. It felt a valuable opportunity, given his multiple fictional treatments of London, to discuss the city’s rapid changes that I was also writing about. Talk inevitably turned to its expanding population of wealthy residents. He told me that he had once thought about writing a novel about the super-rich, but concluded that it would ultimately be too boring. What could one say about people whose lives were not connected to others?
Coronavirus has shone a light on UK's housing crisis – here's how it can be fixed
The UK’s housing crisis has been thrown into sharp relief by COVID-19. Lockdown has been especially difficult for the homeless and those with young children living in overcrowded homes without outdoor space. Private renters who have lost their jobs face the prospect of eviction and increasing numbers of homeless people are unable to find support despite initial announcements that they would be housed in hotels. For others, the lockdown effects are less pronounced.
Verso
Alpha City How London Was Captured by the Super-Rich -1 0 Hardback Hardback $29.95$17.9740% off 256 pages / July 21, 2020 / 9781788737975 Available for pre-order. This item will be available on July 21, 2020. Ebook Ebook $9.99 July 21, 2020 / 9781788738002 Forthcoming 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.
Are Britain’s political parties finally taking housing seriously?
For more than 20 years we have been researching and writing about the downgrading of public housing in the UK. Thankfully, the tide finally appears to be turning. Government failure can be seen most clearly in the form of homelessness, but the problems are bigger – high prices, high rents, housing insecurity and its high toll on mental health, overcrowding, beds in sheds and so on. For decades, financial support for public housing has been cut.
Finally, most parties take the UK's housing crisis seriously
For more than 20 years we have been researching and writing about the downgrading of public housing in the UK. Thankfully, the tide finally appears to be turning. Government failure can be seen most clearly in the form of homelessness, but the problems are bigger – high prices, high rents, housing insecurity and its high toll on mental health, overcrowding, beds in sheds and so on. For decades, financial support for public housing has been cut.
Finally, most parties (apart from the Conservatives) take the UK's housing crisis seriously
For more than 20 years we have been researching and writing about the downgrading of public housing in the UK. Thankfully, the tide finally appears to be turning. Government failure can be seen most clearly in the form of homelessness, but the problems are bigger – high prices, high rents, housing insecurity and its high toll on mental health, overcrowding, beds in sheds and so on. For decades, financial support for public housing has been cut.
Book review: Safe as Houses: Private Greed, Political Negligence and Housing Policy After Grenfell
Book review: Safe as Houses: Private Greed, Political Negligence and Housing Policy After Grenfell by Stuart Hodkinson and reviewed by Neil Gray Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019; 272 pp.: 978-1-5261-2998-7, £11.99 (pbk). Stuart Hodkinson’s Safe as Houses provides a vital fine-grained account of processes of privatisation, outsourcing and deregulation in UK public housing since 1979.
Anchoring capital in place: The grounded impact of international wealth chains on housing markets in London
Introduction The machine fuelled by property investment and international wealth has had the effect of shifting the role of homes into assets more often traded for capital accumulation. In this article, we argue that houses are more likely to be used in this way where significant incentives exist for the wealthy, and the funds that they invest in, to purchase, manipulate and accumulate property in urban land markets.
The City, Disorder, Harm and Social Control, 1st Edition
Reviews "As this book shows, to understand crime is, in many ways, to understand the city. And in the 21st century, cities are growing, and are projected to grow, at unprecedented rates. These dramatic developments have vital criminological implications which have, so far, not been systematically and accessibly addressed.
Commentary: Amid a housing crisis, London builds more empty luxury apartments
The shocking number of vacant luxury homes in London amid a housing shortage crisis should motivate authorities to take action, says one observer. SHEFFIELD: More than 500 high-rise developments are in progress across the city of London. For a nation in the grip of a housing crisis, this should be good news. But in reality, this will bring hardly any benefit for many of those seeking a decent home.
The more expensive a property in London, the more likely it is to be empty
More than 500 high-rise developments are in progress across the city of London. For a nation in the grip of a housing crisis, this should be good news. But in reality, this will bring hardly any benefit for many of those seeking a decent home. Almost none of the new homes are reserved for people with no or low incomes and, although house prices in London are falling – particularly at the upper end of the market – construction for wealthy people and international buyers continues.
London's extraordinary surplus of empty luxury apartments revealed
More than 500 high-rise developments are in progress across the city of London. For a nation in the grip of a housing crisis, this should be good news. But in reality, this will bring hardly any benefit for many of those seeking a decent home. Almost none of the new homes are reserved for people with no or low incomes and, although house prices in London are falling – particularly at the upper end of the market – construction for wealthy people and international buyers continues.
Three things we can all learn from people who don’t use smartphones or social media
Many of us spend hours every day tethered to our devices, pawing at the screen to see if it will deliver a few more likes or emails, monitoring the world and honing our online presence. Social networking platforms such as Whatsapp, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are supposed to make us feel more connected. Yet our reliance on technology to “see” the social world around us can be a heavy burden.
3 lessons from people who disconnect from social media and smartphones
Many of us spend hours every day tethered to our devices, pawing at the screen to see if it will deliver a few more likes or e-mails, monitoring the world and honing our online presence. Social networking platforms such as Whatsapp, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are supposed to make us feel more connected. Yet our reliance on technology to "see" the social world around us can be a heavy burden.
3 Things We Can All Learn From People Who Don't Use Smartphones Or Social Media
Many of us spend hours every day tethered to our devices, pawing at the screen to see if it will deliver a few more likes or emails, monitoring the world and honing our online presence. Social networking platforms such as Whatsapp, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are supposed to make us feel more connected. Yet our reliance on technology to “see” the social world around us can be a heavy burden.
3 Things We Can All Learn From People Who Don't Use Smartphones Or Social Media
Many of us spend hours every day tethered to our devices, pawing at the screen to see if it will deliver a few more likes or emails, monitoring the world and honing our online presence. Social networking platforms such as Whatsapp, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are supposed to make us feel more connected. Yet our reliance on technology to “see” the social world around us can be a heavy burden.
Scientists Studied People Who Don't Use Any Social Media. Here's What They Learned
Many of us spend hours every day tethered to our devices, pawing at the screen to see if it will deliver a few more likes or emails, monitoring the world and honing our online presence. Social networking platforms such as Whatsapp, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are supposed to make us feel more connected. Yet our reliance on technology to "see" the social world around us can be a heavy burden.
Three things to learn from people who don't use smartphones or social media
Many of us spend hours every day tethered to our devices, pawing at the screen to see if it will deliver a few more likes or e-mails, monitoring the world and honing our online presence. Social networking platforms such as Whatsapp, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are supposed to make us feel more connected. Yet our reliance on technology to “see” the social world around us can be a heavy burden.
Three things we can all learn from people who don't use smartphones or social media
Many of us spend hours every day tethered to our devices, pawing at the screen to see if it will deliver a few more likes or emails, monitoring the world and honing our online presence. Social networking platforms such as Whatsapp, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are supposed to make us feel more connected. Yet our reliance on technology to “see” the social world around us can be a heavy burden.
Three things we can all learn from people who don't use smartphones or social media
The Pew Research Centre recently reported that about a quarter of US adults say they are "almost constantly" online. Stress, addiction, depression and anxiety seem unsurprising consequences of using social platforms often specifically designed to keep us repeating the same actions over and over again. Even so, many would find the prospect of living offline worrisome, or simply impossible.
Three things we can all learn from people who don't use smartphones or social media
Many of us spend hours every day tethered to our devices, pawing at the screen to see if it will deliver a few more likes or emails, monitoring the world and honing our online presence. Social networking platforms such as Whatsapp, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are supposed to make us feel more connected. Yet our reliance on technology to “see” the social world around us can be a heavy burden.
Grenfell and After
This summer, the annual Notting Hill Carnival took place as usual. The two-day carnival, Europe’s biggest street festival, has been a major London event every August since 1966. But this year, the carnival followed the tragic fire in June at Grenfell Tower, which happened in the same London borough, Kensington and Chelsea, and the carnival procession began with a commemoration for those who died in the inferno. Picking up the weekend Financial Times, I flicked to the House and Homes section.
Looking for big ‘fry’: The motives and methods of middle-class international property investors
Anxieties about the effects of international property investment in world cities like London have mainly focused on super-rich investors and corporate vehicles that have generated price inflation of assets and accelerated exclusion from an already expensive market.
The fortress complex: how the West became obsessed with home security
That famous phrase, “an Englishman’s home is his castle”, neatly captures longstanding ideas about what the private home really is: a place which we can control and defend, a private territory where we decide who enters and who doesn’t. We all share a deep and primitive fear of intrusion and invasion, which lead us to see the home as a place of refuge.
Sheffield wants to be the UK's fairest city. Here's how
Fairness has become one of the most important ideas in contemporary politics. It’s a concept leveraged by both sides of the political spectrum, to attack or support decisions about who gets what, and how – particularly when it comes to state support. Most would agree that people should not have poorer health or fewer opportunities, simply because of where they live. Or that people who work hard should be able to earn enough to live on.
Onshore havens: Home, morality and tax
31 May 2016Onshore havens: Home, morality and tax The homes and spaces of wealthy elites are a crucial missing part of the recent tax avoidance debates Rowland Atkinson, Associate Fellow, SPERI and Research Chair in Inclusive Society, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, University of Sheffield Recent revelations about tax avoidance have highlighted an important aspect of daily economic life – the role of space or, more specifically, the non-spaces of jurisdictions deemed to be...
Tax avoidance: Not illegal, just harmful and deviant?
21 April 2016Tax avoidance: Not illegal, just harmful and deviant? The furore over tax avoidance, both by our national and international elites, reveals new social fault lines while highlighting a crisis of legitimacy to calls for togetherness and common purpose Rowland Atkinson, Associate Fellow, SPERI and Research Chair in Inclusive Society, Department of Town and Regional Planning, University of Sheffield The word plutocracy combines two elements to its meaning – that of wealth and power.
THE PLUTOCRATIC CITY: ELITE FORMATION, POWER AND SPACE IN CONTEMPORARY LONDON
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Getting the most value from public assets shouldn't just mean selling them off
The autumn spending review, delivered by the chancellor last week, included a number of policies relating to public sector assets. Some of these relate to nationally held assets, with a number of government departments agreeing to release land and property worth £4.5bn between 2016-17 and 2020-21 – including up to £1bn of estate sales by the Ministry of Defence.
Defensive Architecture: Designing the Homeless out of Our Cities
On any one night in London, there around 700 people sleeping in the city’s street. Rough sleeping is a risky decision – and almost always the choice of the most desperate. Yet the response of the state – and our society – is surprisingly hostile. Rough sleeping – and homelessness more generally – are on the rise. But austerity measures have made things worse, by cutting funds to vital support services. On top of this, rough sleepers have good reason to fear abusive behaviour from passers-by.
Defensive architecture: designing the homeless out of cities
On any one night in London, there around 700 people sleeping in the city’s streets. Rough sleeping is a risky decision – and almost always the choice of the most desperate. Yet the response of the state – and our society – is surprisingly hostile. Rough sleeping – and homelessness more generally – are on the rise. But austerity measures have made things worse, by cutting funds to vital support services. On top of this, rough sleepers have good reason to fear abusive behaviour from passers-by.
How “defensive architecture” is designing the homeless out of our cities
On any one night in London, there around 700 people sleeping in the city’s streets. Rough sleeping is a risky decision – and almost always the choice of the most desperate. Yet the response of the state – and our society – is surprisingly hostile. Rough sleeping – and homelessness more generally – are on the rise. But austerity measures have made things worse, by cutting funds to vital support services. On top of this, rough sleepers have good reason to fear abusive behaviour from passers-by.
Gentrification and displacement: the household impacts of neighbourhood change
Description Gentrification raises concerns about segregation, social mix and sustainability issues for Australian cities. This report examines the process and its impact. The report looks at three main questions: How much gentrification has actually taken place over the last decade and how much household displacement has occurred as a result of the loss of affordable housing in these newly pressured locations?
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