Table Of ContentElite Mobilities
Small in number but great in influence, mobile elites have shaped the
contours of global capitalism. Today these elites continue to flourish glo-
bally but in a changing landscape. The current economic crisis – and
rising concerns about the moral legitimacy of extreme wealth – coincides
with stern warnings over the risks posed by climate change and the unsus-
tainable use of resources. Often an out-of-bounds topic in critical social
science, elites are thought of as too inaccessible a group to interview and
too variable a minority to measure.
This groundbreaking collection sets out to challenge this perception.
Through the careful examination of the movements of the 1 per cent
through the everyday spaces of the 99 per cent, Elite Mobilitiess investigates
the shared zones elites inhabit alongside the commons: the executive
lounge in the airport, the penthouse in the hotel, or the gated community
next to the slum. Bringing together the pioneer scholars in critical soci-
ology today, this collection explores how social scientists can research,
map, and “track” the flows and residues of objects, wealth, and power sur-
rounding the hypermobile.
Elite Mobilitiess sets a new benchmark in social science efforts to research
the powerful and the privileged. It will appeal to students and scholars
interested in mobilities, transport, tourism, social stratification, class,
inequality, consumption, and global environmental change.
Thomas Birtchnell is Lecturer in Geography and Sustainable Communities
at the University of Wollongong, Australia.
Javier Caletrío is Research Fellow at the Centre for Mobilities Research at
Lancaster University, UK.
Changing mobilities
Series Editors: Monika Büscher, Peter Adey
This series explores the transformations of society, politics, and everyday
experiences wrought by changing mobilities, and the power of mobilities
research to inform constructive responses to these transformations. As a
new mobile century is taking shape, international scholars explore motiva-
tions, experiences, insecurities, implications, and limitations of mobile
living, and opportunities and challenges for design in the broadest sense,
from policy to urban planning, new media, and technology design. With
world citizens expected to travel 105 billion kilometres per year in 2050, it
is critical to make mobilities research and design inform each other.
Elite Mobilities
Edited by Thomas Birtchnell and Javier Caletrío
Forthcoming:
Changing Mobilities
Monika Büscher
Cargomobilities
Moving materials in a global age
Edited by Thomas Birtchnell, Satya Savitzky and John Urry
Elite Mobilities
Edited by Thomas Birtchnell
and Javier Caletrío
First published 2014
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2014 selection and editorial material, Thomas Birtchnell and
Javier Caletrío; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Thomas Birtchnell and Javier Caletrío to be identified
as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for
their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Elite mobilities / edited by Thomas Birtchnell and Javier Caletrío.
pages cm. – (Changing mobilities)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Elite (Social sciences) 2. Emigration and immigration.
3. Globalization. I. Birtchnell, Thomas. II. Caletrío, Javier.
HT609.E45 2013
305.52–dc23
2013012025
ISBN: 978-0-415-65580-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-07853-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Baskerville
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables viii
Notes on contributors ix
Acknowledgements xii
1 Introduction: the movement of the few 1
THOMAS BIRTCHNELL AND JAVIER CALETRÍO
2 Elsewhere: tracking the mobile lives of globals 21
ANTHONY ELLIOTT
3 Wealth segmentation and the mobilities of the super-rich:
aconceptual framework 40
JONATHAN V. BEAVERSTOCK AND
JAMES R. FAULCONBRIDGE
4 Elite formation in the third industrial revolution 62
THOMAS BIRTCHNELL, GIL VIRY AND JOHN URRY
5 Aeromobile elites: private business aviation and the global
economy 78
LUCY BUDD
6 Super-rich lifestyles 99
MIKE FEATHERSTONE
7 The ease of mobility 136
SHAMUS RAHMAN KHAN
vi Contents
8 The uneven pragmatics of “affordable” luxury tourism in
inland Yucatán (Mexico) 149
MATILDE CÓRDOBA AZCÁRATE, ANA GARCÍA DE FUENTES
AND JUAN CÓRDOBA ORDÓÑEZ
9 Visible–invisible: the social semiotics of labour in luxury
tourism 176
CRISPIN THURLOW AND ADAM JAWORSKI
10 ‘This is not me’: conspicuous consumption and the travel
aspirations of the European middle classes 194
JAVIER CALETRÍO
11 Tracing the super-rich and their mobilities in a
Scandinavian welfare state 209
MALENE FREUDENDAL-P EDERSEN
12 The super-rich and offshore worlds 226
JOHN URRY
13 Epilogue: the bodies, spaces and tempo of elite
formations 241
MIMI SHELLER
14 Postscript: elite mobilities and critique 251
ANDREW SAYER
Index 263
Figures
3.1 The geographical distribution of prestige car
dealerships in the UK, 2012 51
4.1 Hull co-authorship network of patents for 3D printing 70
4.2 Crump co-authorship network of patents for 3D printing 71
5.1 Growth of the world’s business aircraft fleet, 2001–2011 83
5.2 Distribution of business aircraft by world region, 2011 84
8.1 Location map of theYYYucatánPeninsula and The
Haciendas 152
8.2 Photographs at Hacienda Temozón Sur representing
the wedding of a hacendadoo (left) andpeoness (right) 155
8.3 AbandonedHacienda ex-henequenera Uayalcén, just a
few kilometers away from Temozón Sur 157
8.4 Surroundings of the restoredHacienda Temozón Sur 159
8.5 Gated entrance toHacienda Temozón Sur 162
8.6 Panoramic view of the casaprincipall from inside
Hacienda Temozón Sur 164
8.7 Gardeners working at Hacienda Temozón Sur 166
8.8 Waiters catering for tourists at Hacienda Temozón Sur 169
9.1 Beach changing room, Burj al Arab Hotel, Dubai 180
9.2 The lobby, Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, USA 181
9.3 A corridor, Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, USA 181
9.4 First-floor atrium, Burj al ArabHotel, Dubai 182
9.5 The Orient Express, Innsbruck station 183
9.6 Kitchen car, the Orient Express 184
9.7 Twentieth floor, Burj al Arab hotel, Dubai 185
9.8 Morning ride, Phinda Private Game Lodge, South
Africa 185
9.9 Lunch, Burj al Arab Hotel, Dubai 186
9.10 Breakfast, Phinda Private Game Reserve, South Africa 187
9.11 The Burj al Arab, Dubai 188
9.12 The beach, Burj al Arab, Dubai 189
9.13 191
Tables
3.1 The worldwide population of HighNet Worth
Individuals and the value of their global wealth,
1996–2011 43
3.2 The composition of the globalHighNet Worth
Individual (HNWI) population, 2002–2011 44
3.3 The global distribution of theHighNet Worth
Individual (HNWI) population and value of private
wealth, 2000–2011 45
3.4 Super-rich mobilities and wealth segmentation 46
3.5 The ten most expensive luxury yachts in the world, 2012 47
3.6 Super-rich charter and sales companies: by sea and air 48
3.7 Super-rich automobilities 49
3.8 The socio-technical basis of super-rich mobilities,
differentiated by wealth segmentation 54
4.1 Network indices for theHull and Crump co-authorship
networks 72
5.1 Top 10 business aircraft fleets by country, 2011 (2008
figures in brackets) 84
Contributors
Jonathan V. Beaverstock is Professor of Economic Geography at the Uni-
versity of Nottingham. For over a decade his research has investigated
the globalizing strategies of professionals and professional service firms
in world cities’ knowledge- intensive economies. Recent publications
include Global Cities (Routledge 2013, co- edited with James R. Faulcon-
bridge and others).
Thomas Birtchnell is Lecturer in Geography and Sustainable Communities
at the University of Wollongong. He has published on mobilities, India,
elites, 3D printing/additive manufacturing, innovation, and futures.
His books include the forthcoming Cargomobilities: Moving Materials in
a Global Age (Routledge 2014, with Satya Savitzsky and John Urry) and
Indovation: Innovation and a Global Knowledge Economy in India (Palgrave
Macmillan 2013).
Lucy Budd is Senior Lecturer in Air Transport in the School of Civil and
Building Engineering at Loughborough University. She has published
extensively on the geographies of airspace, air travel, and globalization,
aviation and the environment, and the historical development of air
transport. She is co- editor of Technologies of Mobility in the Americas (Peter
Lang 2012).
Javier Caletrío is Research Fellow in the Centre for Mobilities Research at
Lancaster University, UK and Scientific Advisor to the Mobile Lives Forum,
SNCF, France. His research looks at mobilities, future imaginaries, techno-
logical change, and global warming from a cross-c ultural perspective. He
has co- edited Mobilities and Forced Migration (Routledge 2013).
Matilde Córdoba Azcárate was a Postdoctoral Fullbright Fellow at the
City University of New York from 2010 to 2012 and is currently a
Lecturer at the Department of Social Anthropology at t he University
of California, San Diego. She has published on tourism mobilities,
environmental change, and inequalities in the Yucatán Peninsula
(Mexico) and Spain.
