K Higgins
Biographic Data
| ID | 50103 |
|---|---|
| NAME | K Higgins |
| GIVEN NAMES | K |
| FAMILY NAME | Higgins |
| SIGNATURE | HIGGINS K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Sheffield |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8624-8044 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 46 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 15 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Introduction to the BJS Special Issue, 2026, Families and Wealth
nonPeerReviewed
AI in the Australian Public Service
This article focuses on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the Australian Public Service (APS) and its impact on the APS workforce. Though several policies and governance arrangements regarding AI use in the APS have been adopted since 2023, a survey of nearly 2000 APS employees by the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) from late 2024 identified a range of ongoing issues. While it found that AI is used across the APS and viewed posi…
Therapy Culture for the Business Class
In the current context of extreme economic inequality and rising concentrations of income and wealth at the top, the social processes through which elites restrict the wider population's access to resources and opportunities, and the role of exclusive organisations in maintaining cohesion among a select few, have important implications for social inequalities. Drawing on 41 semi-structured interviews with wealthy members of the business class liv…
Outsiders on the inside
Given the slow progress on increasing racial and ethnic diversity at the highest levels of society, it is important to ask what role racialisation plays in the experience of minoritised individuals who do reach an elite position. More specifically, this article asks how minoritised elites respond to racial inequality in their careers. Drawing on 30 interviews with British racialised minorities who have achieved positions of notable leadership or …
Road – gate – enclosure
The demand for security by urban elites has driven the subtle transformation of their neighbourhoods – and the wider city – with a more closed and fragmented public realm, ‘anti-disorder’ design strategies and increasing control. This article explores signature elements of securityscapes in affluent domains of Mexico City and London, two very different cities yet with similarly fragmenting and inhibiting modes of urban design. Extensive immersion…
Ethnographies of the super-rich
Rosita Armytage. 2020. Big capital in an unequal world: The micropolitics of wealth in Pakistan . London: Berghahn Books. Ashley Mears. 2020. Very important people: Status and beauty in the global party circuit . New York: Princeton University Press
Redefining the role of urban studies Early Career Academics in the post-Covid-19 university
We are an international collective of Early Career Academics (ECAs) who met throughout 2020 to explore the implications of COVID-19 on precarious academics. With this intervention, our aims are to voice commonly shared experiences and concerns and to reflect on the extent to which the pandemic offers opportunities to redefine Higher Education and research institutions, in a context of ongoing precarity and funding cuts. Specifically, we explore a…
Dynasties in the making
The inheritance practices of the ultra-wealthy play a key role in reproducing socio-economic inequalities across generations. Given this role, we need a better understanding of the individuals and families who own, accumulate and pass on substantial amounts of wealth. This article asks two questions: first, how do parents with profound ownership or control over capital reconcile cultivating dynastic wealth with beliefs in meritocratic achievement…
Kinship, whiteness and the politics of belonging among white British migrants and Pākehā in Aotearoa/New Zealand
In this article, we examine how white British migrants in Aotearoa/New Zealand and Pākehā New Zealanders understand the nature of their relationship to each other. We present findings from two qualitative studies conducted in Auckland, one with British migrants and the other with Pākehā. Drawing on Nash’s (2005. “Geographies of Relatedness.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 30: 452) argument that kinship is a selective process…
Brexit
A response to Brexit from two qualitative researchers from the different disciplines of counselling and human geography use a fragmented form to examine the personal and emotional together with a critique from a more mainstream research perspective, but not necessarily a more mainstream political perspective. This collaboration across disciplines and within different approaches to inquiry aims to interrogate some of the emotions and practices of …
National belonging post‐referendum
Following the EU Referendum, this paper tracks how pro‐Remain British migrants living in other EU Member States expressed a sense of shame and dislocation in relation to their national identity. Developed from a survey of 909 British nationals living in other EU Member States, it hopes to make a timely intervention into wider debates about privileged migration, Britishness, citizenship and belonging. First, it outlines a new articulation of the “…
The migrancy of racial and settler imaginaries
The position of migrants within Eurocolonial settler cities has received growing interdisciplinary attention. Within the field of geography there have been calls for new avenues of research into the encounters of bodies with different histories of arrival and experiences of racialization in such contexts. However, there remains little research on the position of British migrants, despite their ethno-historical links, and the ongoing popularity of…
Tense and the other
Expressions of concern about the national future, or the surfacing of history through postcolonial melancholia and nostalgia for a lost Golden Age, illustrate how temporality and tense have been absorbed into discourses, affective attachments and practices of cultural recognition and national belonging. First, this paper aims to develop the discussion of urban multiculture in human geography in an original direction through a theoretically‐driven…
Lifestyle migration and settler colonialism
This paper explores the imaginative geographies of relatively privileged migrants living in settler societies for their colonial continuities. It responds to a recent call to historicise the cultural significance attached to migration and destinations in lifestyle migration research through an exploration of some of the potential synergies between the newly emergent field of settler colonial studies and lifestyle migration. The analysis draws on …
Migration, space and transnational identities
Migration, space and transnational identities: the British in South Africa." Social & Cultural Geography, 18(2), pp. 293–294
Dynasties in the making
The inheritance practices of the ultra-wealthy play a key role in reproducing socio-economic inequalities across generations. Given this role, we need a better understanding of the individuals and families who own, accumulate and pass on substantial amounts of wealth. This article asks two questions: first, how do parents with profound ownership or control over capital reconcile cultivating dynastic wealth with beliefs in meritocratic achievement…
National belonging post‐referendum
Following the EU Referendum, this paper tracks how pro‐Remain British migrants living in other EU Member States expressed a sense of shame and dislocation in relation to their national identity. Developed from a survey of 909 British nationals living in other EU Member States, it hopes to make a timely intervention into wider debates about privileged migration, Britishness, citizenship and belonging. First, it outlines a new articulation of the “…
The migrancy of racial and settler imaginaries
The position of migrants within Eurocolonial settler cities has received growing interdisciplinary attention. Within the field of geography there have been calls for new avenues of research into the encounters of bodies with different histories of arrival and experiences of racialization in such contexts. However, there remains little research on the position of British migrants, despite their ethno-historical links, and the ongoing popularity of…
Lifestyle migration and settler colonialism
This paper explores the imaginative geographies of relatively privileged migrants living in settler societies for their colonial continuities. It responds to a recent call to historicise the cultural significance attached to migration and destinations in lifestyle migration research through an exploration of some of the potential synergies between the newly emergent field of settler colonial studies and lifestyle migration. The analysis draws on …
Redefining the role of urban studies Early Career Academics in the post-Covid-19 university
We are an international collective of Early Career Academics (ECAs) who met throughout 2020 to explore the implications of COVID-19 on precarious academics. With this intervention, our aims are to voice commonly shared experiences and concerns and to reflect on the extent to which the pandemic offers opportunities to redefine Higher Education and research institutions, in a context of ongoing precarity and funding cuts. Specifically, we explore a…
Tense and the other
Expressions of concern about the national future, or the surfacing of history through postcolonial melancholia and nostalgia for a lost Golden Age, illustrate how temporality and tense have been absorbed into discourses, affective attachments and practices of cultural recognition and national belonging. First, this paper aims to develop the discussion of urban multiculture in human geography in an original direction through a theoretically‐driven…
Outsiders on the inside
Given the slow progress on increasing racial and ethnic diversity at the highest levels of society, it is important to ask what role racialisation plays in the experience of minoritised individuals who do reach an elite position. More specifically, this article asks how minoritised elites respond to racial inequality in their careers. Drawing on 30 interviews with British racialised minorities who have achieved positions of notable leadership or …
Kinship, whiteness and the politics of belonging among white British migrants and Pākehā in Aotearoa/New Zealand
In this article, we examine how white British migrants in Aotearoa/New Zealand and Pākehā New Zealanders understand the nature of their relationship to each other. We present findings from two qualitative studies conducted in Auckland, one with British migrants and the other with Pākehā. Drawing on Nash’s (2005. “Geographies of Relatedness.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 30: 452) argument that kinship is a selective process…
Lifestyle migration and settler colonialism
This paper explores the imaginative geographies of relatively privileged migrants living in settler societies for their colonial continuities. It responds to a recent call to historicise the cultural significance attached to migration and destinations in lifestyle migration research through an exploration of some of the potential synergies between the newly emergent field of settler colonial studies and lifestyle migration. The analysis draws on …
Migration, space and transnational identities
Migration, space and transnational identities: the British in South Africa." Social & Cultural Geography, 18(2), pp. 293–294
Tense and the other
Expressions of concern about the national future, or the surfacing of history through postcolonial melancholia and nostalgia for a lost Golden Age, illustrate how temporality and tense have been absorbed into discourses, affective attachments and practices of cultural recognition and national belonging. First, this paper aims to develop the discussion of urban multiculture in human geography in an original direction through a theoretically‐driven…
Brexit
A response to Brexit from two qualitative researchers from the different disciplines of counselling and human geography use a fragmented form to examine the personal and emotional together with a critique from a more mainstream research perspective, but not necessarily a more mainstream political perspective. This collaboration across disciplines and within different approaches to inquiry aims to interrogate some of the emotions and practices of …
National belonging post‐referendum
Following the EU Referendum, this paper tracks how pro‐Remain British migrants living in other EU Member States expressed a sense of shame and dislocation in relation to their national identity. Developed from a survey of 909 British nationals living in other EU Member States, it hopes to make a timely intervention into wider debates about privileged migration, Britishness, citizenship and belonging. First, it outlines a new articulation of the “…
The migrancy of racial and settler imaginaries
The position of migrants within Eurocolonial settler cities has received growing interdisciplinary attention. Within the field of geography there have been calls for new avenues of research into the encounters of bodies with different histories of arrival and experiences of racialization in such contexts. However, there remains little research on the position of British migrants, despite their ethno-historical links, and the ongoing popularity of…
Kinship, whiteness and the politics of belonging among white British migrants and Pākehā in Aotearoa/New Zealand
In this article, we examine how white British migrants in Aotearoa/New Zealand and Pākehā New Zealanders understand the nature of their relationship to each other. We present findings from two qualitative studies conducted in Auckland, one with British migrants and the other with Pākehā. Drawing on Nash’s (2005. “Geographies of Relatedness.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 30: 452) argument that kinship is a selective process…
Road – gate – enclosure
The demand for security by urban elites has driven the subtle transformation of their neighbourhoods – and the wider city – with a more closed and fragmented public realm, ‘anti-disorder’ design strategies and increasing control. This article explores signature elements of securityscapes in affluent domains of Mexico City and London, two very different cities yet with similarly fragmenting and inhibiting modes of urban design. Extensive immersion…
Ethnographies of the super-rich
Rosita Armytage. 2020. Big capital in an unequal world: The micropolitics of wealth in Pakistan . London: Berghahn Books. Ashley Mears. 2020. Very important people: Status and beauty in the global party circuit . New York: Princeton University Press
Redefining the role of urban studies Early Career Academics in the post-Covid-19 university
We are an international collective of Early Career Academics (ECAs) who met throughout 2020 to explore the implications of COVID-19 on precarious academics. With this intervention, our aims are to voice commonly shared experiences and concerns and to reflect on the extent to which the pandemic offers opportunities to redefine Higher Education and research institutions, in a context of ongoing precarity and funding cuts. Specifically, we explore a…
Dynasties in the making
The inheritance practices of the ultra-wealthy play a key role in reproducing socio-economic inequalities across generations. Given this role, we need a better understanding of the individuals and families who own, accumulate and pass on substantial amounts of wealth. This article asks two questions: first, how do parents with profound ownership or control over capital reconcile cultivating dynastic wealth with beliefs in meritocratic achievement…
AI in the Australian Public Service
This article focuses on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the Australian Public Service (APS) and its impact on the APS workforce. Though several policies and governance arrangements regarding AI use in the APS have been adopted since 2023, a survey of nearly 2000 APS employees by the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) from late 2024 identified a range of ongoing issues. While it found that AI is used across the APS and viewed posi…
Therapy Culture for the Business Class
In the current context of extreme economic inequality and rising concentrations of income and wealth at the top, the social processes through which elites restrict the wider population's access to resources and opportunities, and the role of exclusive organisations in maintaining cohesion among a select few, have important implications for social inequalities. Drawing on 41 semi-structured interviews with wealthy members of the business class liv…
Outsiders on the inside
Given the slow progress on increasing racial and ethnic diversity at the highest levels of society, it is important to ask what role racialisation plays in the experience of minoritised individuals who do reach an elite position. More specifically, this article asks how minoritised elites respond to racial inequality in their careers. Drawing on 30 interviews with British racialised minorities who have achieved positions of notable leadership or …
Introduction to the BJS Special Issue, 2026, Families and Wealth
nonPeerReviewed
Sociology (11 works) · Gender Studies (8 works) · Political science (8 works) · Anthropology (6 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Geography (5 works) · Migration and Labor Dynamics (5 works) · Aesthetics (4 works) · Aotearoa (4 works)