Cambridge ESRC DTP Annual Lecture 2019

Cambridge ESRC DTP Annual Lecture 2019

Professor Roger Burrows is Professor of Cities at Newcastle University and Visiting Professor at the Centre for Urban and Community Research, Goldsmiths, University of London

The 'HAVES' and the 'HAVE YACHTS'

Socio-Spatial Struggles in London between the 'Merely Wealthy' and the 'Super-Rich'

The ESRC DTP lecture is an established annual interdisciplinary event for all researchers in the social sciences and beyond. We are delighted that Professor Burrows will be giving this year’s lecture.

In the decade between 2007 and 2017 London changed fundamentally. This lecture is about how the actions of the transnational über-wealthy—the 'have yachts'—impinged on the life-worlds of the 'merely wealthy'—'the haves.' The lecture explores the conceptual utility of gentrification as a way of thinking about these seismic urban changes, and concludes that profound socio- spatial changes and new intensities in the financialization of housing, neighborhood tensions, and cultural dislocations are reshaping London as a plutocratic city and the lives of those who live there in historically unprecedented ways. The concept of 'super-gentrification', then it is argued, does not adequately frame these circumstances.

A drinks reception will be held from 4.45pm, followed by the Lecture at 5.30pm.