Hardback
Handbook on Wealth and the Super-Rich
Fewer than 100 people own and control more wealth than 50 per cent of the world’s population. The Handbook on Wealth and the Super-Rich is a unique examination of both the lives and lifestyles of the super-rich, as well as the processes that underpin super-wealth generation and its unequal distribution. Drawing on a multiplicity of international examples, leading experts from across the social sciences offer a landmark multidisciplinary contribution to emerging analyses of the global super-rich and their astonishing wealth. The book’s 22 accessible and coherently organised chapters cover a range of captivating topics from biographies of illicit super-wealth, to tax footprint reduction, to the environmental consequences of super-rich lives and their conspicuous consumption.
More Information
Critical Acclaim
Contributors
Contents
More Information
Fewer than 100 people own and control more wealth than 50 per cent of the world’s population. The Handbook on Wealth and the Super-Rich is a landmark multidisciplinary evaluation of both the lives and lifestyles of the super-rich, as well as the processes that underpin super-wealth generation and its unequal distribution.
Drawing on international case studies, leading experts from across the social sciences offer 22 accessible and coherently organized chapters, which critically analyse a range of topics including:
• the legitimacy of extreme wealth from a moral economic perspective
• biographies of illicit super-wealth
• London’s housing markets
• how the very wealthy fly
• the environmental consequences of super-rich lives
• crafting immigration policies to attract the rich.
Students and scholars studying a host of topics such as development studies, economics, geography, history, political science and sociology will find this book eminently engaging. It will also be of great interest to public commentators, charitable organizations and NGOs concerned with wealth and income distributions.
Drawing on international case studies, leading experts from across the social sciences offer 22 accessible and coherently organized chapters, which critically analyse a range of topics including:
• the legitimacy of extreme wealth from a moral economic perspective
• biographies of illicit super-wealth
• London’s housing markets
• how the very wealthy fly
• the environmental consequences of super-rich lives
• crafting immigration policies to attract the rich.
Students and scholars studying a host of topics such as development studies, economics, geography, history, political science and sociology will find this book eminently engaging. It will also be of great interest to public commentators, charitable organizations and NGOs concerned with wealth and income distributions.
Critical Acclaim
‘The Handbook is a pioneering social science intervention. It assembles the largely social-theoretic perspectives of thirty researchers from fields as wide as air transport, international management, town and regional planning, economic, historical and human geography, housing and urban studies, international politics, environmental studies, social theory and political economy, sociology, public policy, and consumer behaviours. It aims to conceptualise and examine empirically the multiple activities that distinguish the particular ways that the super-rich re-shape capitalist relation. In doing so, the volume complements the growing body of more popular works by academics that take aim at the excesses of capitalism, and the unearned incomes enjoyed by its greatest beneficiaries.’
– Richard Le Heron, University of Auckland, New Zealand
‘Very highly recommended for both community and academic library reference collections, Handbook on Wealth and the Super-Rich will also prove to be of great interest to public commentators, charitable organizations, governmental policy makers, NGO activists, and the non-specialist general reader concerned with wealth and income distributions.’
– The Midwest Book Review
‘All you ever wanted to know about the super-rich but were too embarrassed to ask – because we are not really supposed to talk that much about money, especially not about people with huge amounts of money, people who are so very far above us. Thankfully nearly three dozen scholars have decided to break the usual taboos and reveal all about our wealthiest of fellow human beings. Just what have they done for us, how did they get so rich, what is their individual carbon footprint and so much more. The new gilded age is coming to an end. It begins to end as we study those who live in the most gilded of cages, no longer in admiration but with great inquisitiveness, and accuracy.’
– Danny Dorling, University of Oxford, UK
‘The handbook is a pioneering social science intervention. It assembles the largely social-theoretic perspectives of thirty researchers from fields as wide as air transport, international management, town and regional planning, economic, historical and human geography, housing and urban studies, international politics, environmental studies, social theory and political economy, sociology, public policy, and consumer behaviours. It aims to conceptualise and examine empirically the multiple activities that distinguish the particular ways that the super-rich re-shape capitalist relation. In doing so, the volume complements the growing body of more popular works by academics that take aim at the excesses of capitalism, and the unearned incomes enjoyed by its greatest beneficiaries.’
– New Zealand Geographer
– Richard Le Heron, University of Auckland, New Zealand
‘Very highly recommended for both community and academic library reference collections, Handbook on Wealth and the Super-Rich will also prove to be of great interest to public commentators, charitable organizations, governmental policy makers, NGO activists, and the non-specialist general reader concerned with wealth and income distributions.’
– The Midwest Book Review
‘All you ever wanted to know about the super-rich but were too embarrassed to ask – because we are not really supposed to talk that much about money, especially not about people with huge amounts of money, people who are so very far above us. Thankfully nearly three dozen scholars have decided to break the usual taboos and reveal all about our wealthiest of fellow human beings. Just what have they done for us, how did they get so rich, what is their individual carbon footprint and so much more. The new gilded age is coming to an end. It begins to end as we study those who live in the most gilded of cages, no longer in admiration but with great inquisitiveness, and accuracy.’
– Danny Dorling, University of Oxford, UK
‘The handbook is a pioneering social science intervention. It assembles the largely social-theoretic perspectives of thirty researchers from fields as wide as air transport, international management, town and regional planning, economic, historical and human geography, housing and urban studies, international politics, environmental studies, social theory and political economy, sociology, public policy, and consumer behaviours. It aims to conceptualise and examine empirically the multiple activities that distinguish the particular ways that the super-rich re-shape capitalist relation. In doing so, the volume complements the growing body of more popular works by academics that take aim at the excesses of capitalism, and the unearned incomes enjoyed by its greatest beneficiaries.’
– New Zealand Geographer
Contributors
Contributors: R. Atkinson, J.V. Beaverstock, L. Budd, R. Burrows, L. Crewe, A. Davison, A.D. Dixon, R. Forrest, D.R. Green, S. Hall, T. Hall, I. Hay, I. Kapoor, S.Y. Koh, G. Mangraviti, A. Martin, I.A. Osuoka, A. Owens, R. Palan, C. Paris, D. Rhodes, A. Sayer, P.G. Schervish, S. Schulz, J.R. Short, E. Spence, A. Watson, B. Wissink, M. Woods, A. Zalik
Contents
Contents:
1. ‘They’ve Never Had it so Good’: The Rise and Rise of the Super-Rich and Wealth Inequality
Jonathan V. Beaverstock and Iain Hay
2. Reconsidering the Super-Rich: Variations, Structural Conditions, and Urban Consequences
Sin Yee Koh, Bart Wissink and Ray Forrest
PART I WEALTH, SELF AND SOCIETY
3. Historical Geographies of Wealth: Opportunities, Institutions and Accumulation, C.1800–1930
Alastair Owens and David R. Green
4. On Plutonomy: Economy, Power and the Wealthy Few in the Second Gilded Age
Iain Hay
5. Interrogating the Legitimacy of Extreme Wealth: A Moral Economic Perspective
Andrew Sayer
6. Billionaire Philanthropy: ‘Decaf Capitalism’
Ilan Kapoor
7. Making Money and Making a Self: The Moral Career of Entrepreneurs
Paul G. Schervish
8. Taking Up Caletrío’s Challenge: Silence and the Construction of Wealth Eliteness in Jamie Johnson’s Documentary Film Born Rich
Sam Schulz and Iain Hay
9. “One Time I’ma Show You How To Get Rich!” Rap Music, Wealth and the Rise of the Hip-Hop Mogul
Allan Watson
10. Biographies of Illicit Super-Wealth
Tim Hall
PART II LIVING WEALTHY
11. Capital City? London’s Housing Markets and the ‘Super-Rich’
Rowland Atkinson, Roger Burrows and David Rhodes
12. The Residential Spaces of the Super-Rich
Chris Paris
13. Reconfiguring Places – Wealth and the Transformation of Rural Areas
Michael Woods
14. Performing Wealth and Status: Observing Super-yachts and the Super-rich in Monaco
Emma Spence
15. Flights of Indulgence (Or How the Very Wealthy Fly): The Aeromobile Patterns and Practices of the Super-Rich
Lucy Budd
16. Looking at Luxury: Consuming Luxury Fashion in Global Cities
Louise Crewe and Amber Martin
17. The Luxury of Nature: The Environmental Consequences of Super-Rich Lives
Aidan Davison
PART III WEALTH AND POWER
18. Attracting Wealth: Crafting Immigration Policy to Attract the Rich
John Rennie Short
19. Sovereign Wealth and the Nation-State
Adam D. Dixon
20. Super-Rich Capitalism: Managing and Preserving Private Wealth Management in the Offshore World
Jonathan V. Beaverstock and Sarah Hall
21. Troubling Tax Havens: Multi-Jurisdictional Arbitrage and Corporate Tax Footprint Reduction
Ronen Palan and Giovanni Mangraviti
22. No Change There! Wealth and Oil
Isaac ‘Asume’ Osuoka and Anna Zalik
Index
1. ‘They’ve Never Had it so Good’: The Rise and Rise of the Super-Rich and Wealth Inequality
Jonathan V. Beaverstock and Iain Hay
2. Reconsidering the Super-Rich: Variations, Structural Conditions, and Urban Consequences
Sin Yee Koh, Bart Wissink and Ray Forrest
PART I WEALTH, SELF AND SOCIETY
3. Historical Geographies of Wealth: Opportunities, Institutions and Accumulation, C.1800–1930
Alastair Owens and David R. Green
4. On Plutonomy: Economy, Power and the Wealthy Few in the Second Gilded Age
Iain Hay
5. Interrogating the Legitimacy of Extreme Wealth: A Moral Economic Perspective
Andrew Sayer
6. Billionaire Philanthropy: ‘Decaf Capitalism’
Ilan Kapoor
7. Making Money and Making a Self: The Moral Career of Entrepreneurs
Paul G. Schervish
8. Taking Up Caletrío’s Challenge: Silence and the Construction of Wealth Eliteness in Jamie Johnson’s Documentary Film Born Rich
Sam Schulz and Iain Hay
9. “One Time I’ma Show You How To Get Rich!” Rap Music, Wealth and the Rise of the Hip-Hop Mogul
Allan Watson
10. Biographies of Illicit Super-Wealth
Tim Hall
PART II LIVING WEALTHY
11. Capital City? London’s Housing Markets and the ‘Super-Rich’
Rowland Atkinson, Roger Burrows and David Rhodes
12. The Residential Spaces of the Super-Rich
Chris Paris
13. Reconfiguring Places – Wealth and the Transformation of Rural Areas
Michael Woods
14. Performing Wealth and Status: Observing Super-yachts and the Super-rich in Monaco
Emma Spence
15. Flights of Indulgence (Or How the Very Wealthy Fly): The Aeromobile Patterns and Practices of the Super-Rich
Lucy Budd
16. Looking at Luxury: Consuming Luxury Fashion in Global Cities
Louise Crewe and Amber Martin
17. The Luxury of Nature: The Environmental Consequences of Super-Rich Lives
Aidan Davison
PART III WEALTH AND POWER
18. Attracting Wealth: Crafting Immigration Policy to Attract the Rich
John Rennie Short
19. Sovereign Wealth and the Nation-State
Adam D. Dixon
20. Super-Rich Capitalism: Managing and Preserving Private Wealth Management in the Offshore World
Jonathan V. Beaverstock and Sarah Hall
21. Troubling Tax Havens: Multi-Jurisdictional Arbitrage and Corporate Tax Footprint Reduction
Ronen Palan and Giovanni Mangraviti
22. No Change There! Wealth and Oil
Isaac ‘Asume’ Osuoka and Anna Zalik
Index
