London is a plutocratic paradise. The city has extreme concentrations of wealth in private hands, and is ranking sixth in the world for where local and international billionaires choose to live. The gap between the rich and the poor is widening. As wealthy residents increase, so do the ranks of the dispossessed. The influence of wealth and the damage it inflicts largely go unnoticed, intentionally unacknowledged politically. Far from trickling down, their wealth is burning up the environment and swallowing up the city. But what do we really know about the super rich in the metropoles, and the lives they lead?

Caroline Knowles is a professor of sociology and has recently published the book Serious Money. Walking the Plutocratic London. During twelve years she has walked the streets of London's superrich. Her walks reveal how the wealthy shape the capital in their image, creating a new world of gated communities and luxury developments. Questions arise: Who are the superrich of our times? How do they think about themselves and about other people? Where does their money come from? How do they spend it? How do they live with their money, and how does money live with them?  

"An eye-opening, deeply disturbing, fast-moving journey through the lives, homes and affairs of the filthy rich of London." (Danny Dorling)

Participants:

Caroline Knowles is professor of sociology at Queen Mary, University of London and Programme Director of Urban Infrastructures of Well-Being, British Academy

In conversation with Anders Vassenden, professor of sociology at the University of Stavanger, research areas are migration, class and interaction.