Urban Elites

Abstract

Urban elites consist of the actors in the city who have a decisive influence on urban policies and programs. Urban elites are fragmented but are kept together by a shared interest in advancing a particular political agenda. This desire is served by a multitude of institutional means aimed at keeping other social strata under control and indoctrinating them with views legitimizing prevailing conditions. Urban elites are highly genderized, racialized, and segregated in urban space. Since they are embedded in multiscalar power hierarchies, urban elites can be conflicted, or even justified, by actors at higher or lower scales while they themselves are increasingly becoming part of a transnational elite. The existence of urban elites is unavoidable and not necessarily undesirable, but the way they sustain themselves and promote their own aspirations may be at odds with the interests of other social groups and is often the focus of ongoing normative debates.