Producing and appropriating neighbourhood prestige: cultural capital in Australia’s elite suburbs

Abstract

Bourdieu’s theory of capital can contribute to geographies of elites and the super-rich, as a lens through which spaces of consumption, such as the residential neighbourhood, can also be understood as spaces where capital is accumulated in its varied economic, social and cultural guises. In this paper, I examine how residents of highly affluent neighbourhoods produce and sustain the prestige or distinction of their neighbourhood, and how they appropriate it as their own cultural capital. Addressing this question empirically, I analyse qualitative data from interviews with 46 residents of three of Australia’s most affluent neighbourhoods: Mosman (Sydney), Toorak (Melbourne) and Cottesloe (Per..