Caroline Knowles – författare

'A latter-day Canterbury Tales ... Serious Money has a serious mission' The Times'Eye-opening ... part guide, part indictment of a yawning wealth gap' Misha Glenny, Financial TimesLondon is a plutocrat's paradise, with more resident billionaires than New York, Hong Kong or Moscow. Far from trickling down, their wealth is burning up the environment and swallowing up the city. But what do we really know about London's super rich, and the lives they lead?To find out more about this secretive elite, sociologist Caroline Knowles walks the streets of London from the City to suburban Surrey. Her walks reveal how the wealthy shape the capital in their image, creating a new world of gated communities and luxury developments. Along the way we meet a wide and wickedly entertaining cast of millionaires, billionaires and those who serve them: bankers, tech tycoons, Conservative party donors, butlers, bodyguards, divorce lawyers and many more.By turns jaw-dropping, enraging and enlightening, Serious Money explodes the fiction that wealth is a condition to aspire to, revealing the isolation and paranoia which accompany it when the plutocrat's recompense - a life of unlimited luxury - ultimately proves hollow. It is a powerful reminder that it is not just the super-rich who get to make the city: we make it too, and could demand something different. Because serious money is good for no one - not even the rich.'An eye-opening, deeply disturbing, fast-moving journey through the lives, homes and affairs of the filthy rich of London' Danny Dorling, author of All That Is Solid'A wonderful and vital account of a city ruled by, and for, extreme wealth' Anna Minton, author of Big Capital

Race, Discourse and Labourism argues that the commonwealth of socialism is founded upon a well-concealed history of brutality and repression. Caroline Knowles details the historical conditions of the emergence of race through Labour's dealings with Indian independence negotiations and anti-semitism in the thirties, and the effects of this on the conceptions of black citizenship, multi-racialism and black representation in labour politics.

What happens when the mad are let out of the asylum and there is nowhere for them to go?This hard-hitting and controversial new book traces the terms on which the mad occupy the city's streets, homeless shelters, shopping centres and fast food outlets. This social geography of madness is situated within the broader parameters of systems of social welfare and globalization, arguing that the 'community mental health care' system is actually a system of neglect.Bedlam on the Streets is a richly textured ethnography combining stark photographic images of people and places with an examination of city space and the voices of those that we label "mad".

We live in a visual culture, and visual evidence is increasingly central to social research. In this collection an international range of experts explain how they have used visual methods in their own research, examine their advantages and limitations, and show how they have been used alongside other research techniques. Contributors explore the following ideas:* self and identity* visualizing domestic space* visualizing urban landscapes* visualizing social change.The collection showcases different methods in different contexts through the examination of a variety of topical issues. Methods covered include photo and video diaries, the use of images produced by respondents, the use of images as prompts in interviews and focus groups, documentary photography, photographic inventory and visual ethnography.The result is an exciting and original collection that will be indispensable for any student, academic or researcher interested in the use of visual methods.

We live in a visual culture, and visual evidence is increasingly central to social research. In this collection an international range of experts explain how they have used visual methods in their own research, examine their advantages and limitations, and show how they have been used alongside other research techniques. Contributors explore the following ideas:* self and identity* visualizing domestic space* visualizing urban landscapes* visualizing social change.The collection showcases different methods in different contexts through the examination of a variety of topical issues. Methods covered include photo and video diaries, the use of images produced by respondents, the use of images as prompts in interviews and focus groups, documentary photography, photographic inventory and visual ethnography.The result is an exciting and original collection that will be indispensable for any student, academic or researcher interested in the use of visual methods.

*Shortlisted for the BBC Radio 4 Thinking Allowed Award for Ethnography 2015*This book follows the global trail of one of the world's most unremarkable and ubiquitous objects - flip-flops. Through this unique lens, Caroline Knowles takes a ground level view of the lives and places of globalisation's back roads, providing new insights that challenge contemporary accounts of globalisation.Rather than orderly product chains, the book shows that globalisation along the flip-flop trail is a tangle of unstable, shifting, ad hoc and contingent connections. This book displays both the instabilities of the 'chains' and the complexities, personal topographies and skills with which people navigate these global uncertainties.Flip-Flop provides new ways of thinking about globalisation from the vantage point of the shifting landscape crossed by a seemingly ordinary and everyday commodity.

*Shortlisted for the BBC Radio 4 Thinking Allowed Award for Ethnography 2015*This book follows the global trail of one of the world's most unremarkable and ubiquitous objects - flip-flops. Through this unique lens, Caroline Knowles takes a ground level view of the lives and places of globalisation's back roads, providing new insights that challenge contemporary accounts of globalisation.Rather than orderly product chains, the book shows that globalisation along the flip-flop trail is a tangle of unstable, shifting, ad hoc and contingent connections. This book displays both the instabilities of the 'chains' and the complexities, personal topographies and skills with which people navigate these global uncertainties.Flip-Flop provides new ways of thinking about globalisation from the vantage point of the shifting landscape crossed by a seemingly ordinary and everyday commodity.

'This book is well researched and highly accessible. It is both a useful and much needed addition to the literature on race and social research' - Ethnic and Racial Studies

'The book is well laid out with glossaries of significant new terms and summaries of key points at the end of each chapter, extensive notes and a very useful bibliography. Knowle's book is a welcome contribution to our understanding, and its emphasis on social analysis helps to bridge what sometimes appears to be a widening gap between the academic and policy/practitioner communities. She provides some significant insights into the inter-relationships between everyday race/ethnicity making and contemporary political and theoretical understandings'

- Runnymede's Quarterly Bulletin

'Knowles writes eloquently about how we can challenge and change racist ideas, and ideas about race…this is an important and enjoyable book, which would be valuable to academics or students of any discipline' - Sociological Research Online

In Race and Social Analysis, Caroline Knowles combines biographical and spatial analysis to provide an up-to-date account of the ways race and ethnicity operate in a global context.

The author argues that race and ethnicity is intricately woven into the social landscapes in which we live - encompassing both the mundane interactions of daily life and the ways in which the contemporary world is organized. Through social analysis, the book shows the ways in which we all contribute to race making and the forms of social inequality it produces.

Drawing on the work of other authors in the field and extending it to provide some avenues into conceptualizing and researching race, Caroline Knowles examines:

· how race and ethnicity operate in the social world

· the making of race and ethnicity by the connections between people, spaces and places

· the ways race and ethnicity articulate current analytical themes in social science such as space, movement and global networks

· the ways in which broader structures of racial orders are apparent in everyday lives and the stories people tell about them

· the ways in which places and spaces are raced and ethnicised

· the ways in which race is significant in the operation of globalization and global migration

· the making of whiteness

Race and Social Analysis offers a grounded theoretical examination of race & ethnicity that draws upon examples in Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia. It offers a unique take on the available literature by adding a missing British account of `whiteness'.

'This book is well researched and highly accessible. It is both a useful and much needed addition to the literature on race and social research' - Ethnic and Racial Studies

'The book is well laid out with glossaries of significant new terms and summaries of key points at the end of each chapter, extensive notes and a very useful bibliography. Knowle's book is a welcome contribution to our understanding, and its emphasis on social analysis helps to bridge what sometimes appears to be a widening gap between the academic and policy/practitioner communities. She provides some significant insights into the inter-relationships between everyday race/ethnicity making and contemporary political and theoretical understandings'

- Runnymede's Quarterly Bulletin

'Knowles writes eloquently about how we can challenge and change racist ideas, and ideas about race…this is an important and enjoyable book, which would be valuable to academics or students of any discipline' - Sociological Research Online

In Race and Social Analysis, Caroline Knowles combines biographical and spatial analysis to provide an up-to-date account of the ways race and ethnicity operate in a global context.

The author argues that race and ethnicity is intricately woven into the social landscapes in which we live - encompassing both the mundane interactions of daily life and the ways in which the contemporary world is organized. Through social analysis, the book shows the ways in which we all contribute to race making and the forms of social inequality it produces.

Drawing on the work of other authors in the field and extending it to provide some avenues into conceptualizing and researching race, Caroline Knowles examines:

· how race and ethnicity operate in the social world

· the making of race and ethnicity by the connections between people, spaces and places

· the ways race and ethnicity articulate current analytical themes in social science such as space, movement and global networks

· the ways in which broader structures of racial orders are apparent in everyday lives and the stories people tell about them

· the ways in which places and spaces are raced and ethnicised

· the ways in which race is significant in the operation of globalization and global migration

· the making of whiteness

Race and Social Analysis offers a grounded theoretical examination of race & ethnicity that draws upon examples in Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia. It offers a unique take on the available literature by adding a missing British account of `whiteness'.

Race, Discourse and Labourism argues that the commonwealth of socialism is founded upon a well-concealed history of brutality and repression. Caroline Knowles details the historical conditions of the emergence of race through Labour's dealings with Indian independence negotiations and anti-semitism in the thirties, and the effects of this on the conceptions of black citizenship, multi-racialism and black representation in labour politics.

This collection of original pieces brings together critical perspectives on the intersection of ethnic and gender identities as spatialized forms of embodied social practice, tackling important recent themes such as whiteness, masculinity, the body, sexuality, diaspora and globalization. Designed to bring these debates to students in a way that bridges contemporary theory with vivid case material, this is a lively and wide-ranging text of relevance to a range of social sciences.

This collection of original pieces brings together critical perspectives on the intersection of ethnic and gender identities as spatialized forms of embodied social practice, tackling important recent themes such as whiteness, masculinity, the body, sexuality, diaspora and globalization. Designed to bring these debates to students in a way that bridges contemporary theory with vivid case material, this is a lively and wide-ranging text of relevance to a range of social sciences.

Ghost neighbourhoods, trainless railways, empty offices—a bottom-up look at China’s footprint in British cities.At the high tide of UK–China relations, Chinese investors pumped billions into British property and projects each year, promising urban renewal and economic prosperity. But as political tides turned in both countries, the money dried up. A decade on, we live in the ruins of this ‘golden era’.Caroline Knowles explores China’s global influence from the bottom up. Focusing on London and Manchester, she contrasts Beijing’s grand claims with the ramshackle physical evidence she finds at street level: a series of half-finished buildings and abandoned holes in the ground. And this isn’t just a British phenomenon. All along the continent-spanning Belt and Road network, Chinese-funded cities are patchworks of incompleteness, the products of relentlessly profit-driven urbanism that puts people last.China’s soft-power city-making falls far short of the dreams displayed in glossy brochures. Combining urban observation with sharp commentary, interviewing property developers, Chinese migrants and other city-dwellers, Knowles paints an intimate, nuanced portrait. This is the material and human fabric of Chinese Britain.

In 1997 the United Kingdom returned control of Hong Kong to China, ending the city's status as one of the last remnants of the British Empire and initiating a new phase for it as both a modern city and a hub for global migrations. "Hong Kong" is a tour of the city's post colonial urban landscape, innovatively told through fieldwork and photography. Caroline Knowles and Douglas Harper's point of entry into Hong Kong is the unusual position of the British expatriates who chose to remain in the city after the transition. Now a relatively insignificant presence, British migrants in Hong Kong have become intimately connected with another small minority group there: immigrants from Southeast Asia. The lives, journeys, and stories of these two groups bring to life a place where the past continues to resonate for all its residents, even as the city hurtles forward into a future marked by transience and transition. By skillfully blending ethnographic and visual approaches, "Hong Kong" offers a fascinating guide to a city that is at once unique in its recent history and exemplary of our globalized present.