Globalised Minds, Roots in the City: Urban Upper-Middle Classes in Europe

A new interesting book Globalised Minds, Roots in the City: Urban Upper-middle Classes in Europe explores and reveals the role of urban upper-middle classes in the transformations experienced by contemporary European post-national societies. The findings of this research may surprise and intrigue.
Basing on approaches from classic urban sociology, globalization and mobility studies, and spatial class analysis, Alberta Andreotti, Patrick Le Galès, and Francisco Javier Moreno-Fuentes skillfully present new empirical evidence collected through an original comparative research about professionals and managers in four European cities (Lyon, Madrid, Milan, and Paris). The authors show how and to what extent the European upper-middle class has become transnational and their answer is that less than predicted by speculating social theorists. Refuting simplistic arguments about the rise of global mobility, this interesting and compelling book demonstrates how the majority of European managers remain profoundly embedded and territorialised in their cities and neighborhoods whatever their level of transnational mobility. These groups are simultaneously becoming more cosmopolitan and more locally rooted: they like the variety and tradition of the places they live and want to preserve it, but at the same time value the freedom of post-modern life.
This recommended book offers timely insights into the current state of Europe’s cities and the seemingly paradoxical development of a European and transnational urban-middle class that embodies, and reflects, various complex societal, cultural, and political aspects.