Description
Book SynopsisThis important book takes readers behind the closed doors of elite employers to reveal how class affects who gets to the top. Drawing on 200 interviews across four case studies - television, accountancy, architecture, and acting it explores the complex barriers facing the upwardly mobile.
Trade Review"A landmark text…without a doubt the most wide-ranging and envelope-pushing representation of the new Bourdieu-inspired work on social mobility" Sociology
“The Class Ceiling blows apart the myth of our supposed meritocracy.” The National (Scotland)
“This seminal work has updated our understanding of both modern Britain and the nature of class itself. It fuses theoretical prowess, revelatory data, gripping narrative and clear prose. All of us interested in meritocracy, whether real or imagined, owe the authors an enormous debt of gratitude.” Amol Rajan, BBC Media Editor
Recommended for all levels from upper-division undergraduates to faculty by CHOICE Connect. "An excellent, mixed-methods, Bourdieu-driven study of how privilege creates a “following wind” that helps push people to the top of elite professions… An important innovation of this study is that the authors use ethnographic interviews and observations in four work settings to see how privilege helps not only with “getting in” but also the even more consequential steps of “getting on,” of rising to the elite levels."
“Marshals a wide range of data, analysis and experience in an accessible and readable manner... makes the continued existence of class bias in occupational and public life more difficult for cheerleaders of meritocracy to deny, and – crucially – offers ways to end it.” New Humanist
"Reading The Class Ceiling hit home in so many places I felt bruised by the end. " The Guardian
"A well-conceived and important study which makes a significant contribution to knowledge about social mobility, and an important intervention into broader political debates" Selina Todd, University of Oxford
"This compelling book offers a fresh approach to understanding how social class matters. Easy to read, Highly recommended!" Annette Lareau, University of Pennsylvania
“One of the most insightful works on the dynamics of inequality since Wilkinson and Pickett’s The Spirit Level a decade ago” Herald Scotland
“Friedman and Laurison show how it can possibly be that upwardly mobile executives and professionals earn less than those raised in the upper classes. Everybody in The Class Ceiling has a desirable job, but even in the upper reaches of British society, class roots matter.” Mike Hout, New York University
"Without question this is the most outstanding study of social mobility in the UK to have appeared in the past 20 years. Using a brilliant mixed method design, Friedman & Laurison trace the long shadow of class privilege in driving career prospects even in the supposedly dynamic sectors of today’s knowledge economy. Anyone who thinks Britain is a meritocracy needs to ponder the lessons of this wonderful book." Mike Savage, LSE
"This stunning book provides a panoramic overview of class inequality in the UK labour market with a forensic scrutiny of the ways in which privilege works to keep the class ceiling firmly in place." Diane Reay, University of Cambridge
Table of ContentsIntroduction Getting in Getting on Untangling the class pay gap Inside elite firms The bank of Mum and Dad A helping hand Fitting in View from the top Self-elimination Class ceilings: A new approach to social mobility Conclusion Epilogue: 10 ways to break the class ceiling
