Anna Minton is an acclaimed writer, award winning journalist and academic. She is the celebrated author of two books on cities, Big Capital: Who is London for? and Ground Control: Fear and Happiness in the 21st Century City, both published by Penguin. Big Capital investigates the underlying causes of the... Read more
Anna Minton is an acclaimed writer, award winning journalist and academic. She is the celebrated author of two books on cities, Big Capital: Who is London for? and Ground Control: Fear and Happiness in the 21st Century City, both published by Penguin. Big Capital investigates the underlying causes of the housing crisis in London and other cities and asks who is the city for, as housing becomes above all a financial asset rather than a place to live. Ground Control focuses on the privatization of public space, high security and fear and trust in cities. She is currently working on her third book which takes these themes onto a global canvas, examining the impact of the contemporary property economy on cities. The 2008 financial crash was caused by the sub prime property crisis and she believes that we are currently living through a super prime crisis.
She is an experienced public speaker giving frequent conference keynotes and appearing on television and radio. She began her career as a journalist and this background ensures that she is an excellent communicator, fluently explaining complex ideas to a wide variety of mainstream audiences. The events and conferences she speaks at, in the UK and abroad and in person and online, range from property finance professionals to parliament and the art world, as well as academic and policy making audiences.
Anna Minton was the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Fellow in the Built Environment and is Honorary Professor at the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, University College London. She is Reader in Architecture at the University of East London where she runs a post-graduate course on cities. The course investigates the financialization of land, property and housing and its impact on inclusion, diversity and the economy of the city, while also examining ethical alternatives. She is a regular contributor to the Guardian and the Financial Times.