Dr Katie Higgins (she/her)

School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations

Lecturer

The Wave

Full contact details

Dr Katie Higgins
School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH

Profile

I am a Lecturer in the School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations at the University of Sheffield. Prior to this position, I was an ESRC New Investigator Research Fellow at the University of Oxford and an Urban Studies Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield. I have previously been based at universities across the UK, Aotearoa New Zealand and Canada.

Trained in geography, my research explores social inequalities through studying advantage. My last research project explored how the business class connect with one another locally and globally through CEO peer advisory groups, with a focus on India, the UK and South Africa. Prior to that, I studied the lives of the wealthy business class in Manchester, England and its surrounding towns and villages.

My work has been widely published and I have previously contributed to national radio features and comment pieces, including for BBC Radio 4 Thinking Allowed and The Conversation.

I co-founded and co-convene the Elite Studies Working Group and the BSA Sociology of Elites Study Group; I co-lead the Urban Riches Theme at the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield, and I am the books reviews editor for the British Journal of Sociology.

Research interests: Main research interests:
- Social inequalities
- The sociology of elites
- Families and wealth
- Elite cohesion
- British emigration
- Whiteness

Publications

Books

Burgum S & Higgins K (2022) How the other half lives: Interconnecting socio-spatial inequalities.

Journal articles

Atkinson R, Higgins K & Bourne J (2024) The global urban elite: the sources of wealth and residential networks of the super-rich in 10 cities. Finance and Space, 1(1), 299-317.
Higgins K, Friedman S & Reeves A (2024) “Outsiders on the inside”: how minoritised elites respond to racial inequality. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 48(10), 1991-2011. View this article in WRRO
Ahmed N, Baker A, Bhattacharya A, Cawood S, Cabrera Pacheco AJ, Daniel MM, Grandi M, Grimaldo-Rodríguez CO, Guma PK, Habermehl V , Higgins KW et al (2022) Redefining the role of urban studies Early Career Academics in the post-COVID-19 university. CITY: Analysis of Urban Change, Theory, Action, 26(4), 562-586. View this article in WRRO
Higgins K & Kunz S (2022) Ethnographies of the super-rich. Focaal, 2022(92), 118-123.
Higgins K (2022) Dynasties in the making: family wealth and inheritance for the first-generation ultra-wealthy and their wealth managers. The Sociological Review, 70(6), 1267-1283. View this article in WRRO
Morales ER, Atkinson R & Higgins K (2022) Road – gate – enclosure : elite securityscapes in London and Mexico City. Journal of Urban Design, 27(3), 328-347. View this article in WRRO
Higgins AK & Terruhn J (2020) Kinship, whiteness and the politics of belonging among white British migrants and Pākehā in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 47(15), 3564-3582. View this article in WRRO
Higgins KW (2019) National belonging post‐referendum: Britons living in other EU Member States respond to “Brexit”. Area, 51(2), 277-284. View this article in WRRO
Higgins KW (2019) Tense and the other: temporality and urban multiculture in Auckland, Aotearoa, New Zealand. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 44(1), 168-180. View this article in WRRO
Higgins KW (2019) The migrancy of racial and settler imaginaries: British migrants in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Social & Cultural Geography, 20(1), 87-106.
Higgins KW (2018) Lifestyle migration and settler colonialism: The imaginative geographies of British migrants to Aotearoa New Zealand. Population, Space and Place, 24(3).
Higgins K () Therapy culture for the business class: exploring how CEO peer groups make and legitimate elite cohesion. British Journal of Sociology.

Book chapters

Higgins KW (2024) Patrimonial capitalism, Global Handbook of Inequality (pp. 963-982).
Higgins K & Burgum S (2022) Introduction, How the other half lives (pp. 1-8). Manchester University Press
Higgins K & Burgum S (2022) Introduction: how the other half lives, HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES (pp. 1-7).
Higgins K (2019) Britishness abroad National identities for contemporary British migrants living in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, BRITISH MIGRATION: PRIVILEGE, DIVERSITY AND VULNERABILITY (pp. 128-145).

Grants

ESRC New Investigator Grant. 'Transnational elite communities and the reproduction of inequalities.' 2023-2025.

Urban Studies Foundation. 'Successful Business People and Families in North West England.' 2018-2021.

ESRC 1+3 studentship. 'British emigration to Aotearoa New Zealand.' 2012-2016.

Teaching interests: I am currently the module convenor for Social Divisions and Inequalities: causes, patterns and change.

Postgraduate Supervision: I would be interested in supervising research projects that critically examine social inequalities through studying advantage.