Listen "How does class define us?"
Episode Synopsis
This episode of LSE iQ asks, ‘How does class define us?’ It examines how we wear and reveal our social class in English society today. Do accents really matter? Is it enough to imitate one supposed ‘social betters’ to achieve social mobility? What cost is there to the individual who changes their social status?
Sue Windebank talks to an LSE Law student who reveals how she has overcome the challenges of being an asylum seeker and a care leaver to study law at the School. Professor Sam Friedman, a sociologist of class and inequality, discusses the arbitrariness of what is considered ‘high culture’. And economic historian Professor Neil Cummins reveals how class will probably determine who you marry.
Contributors
Professor Neil Cummins
Professor Sam Friedman
Sabrina Daniel
Research
Assortative Mating and the Industrial Revolution: England, 1754-2021, CEPR Discussion Paper by Gregory Clark and Neil Cummins.
(Not) bringing your whole self to work: The gendered experience of upward mobility in the UK Civil Service by Sam Friedman.
The Class Ceiling, Why it Pays to be Privileged by Sam Friedman and Daniel Laurison.
From Aristocratic to Ordinary: Shifting Modes of Elite Distinction, American Sociological Review by Sam Friedman and Aaron Reeves.
LSE iQ is a university podcast by the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Sue Windebank talks to an LSE Law student who reveals how she has overcome the challenges of being an asylum seeker and a care leaver to study law at the School. Professor Sam Friedman, a sociologist of class and inequality, discusses the arbitrariness of what is considered ‘high culture’. And economic historian Professor Neil Cummins reveals how class will probably determine who you marry.
Contributors
Professor Neil Cummins
Professor Sam Friedman
Sabrina Daniel
Research
Assortative Mating and the Industrial Revolution: England, 1754-2021, CEPR Discussion Paper by Gregory Clark and Neil Cummins.
(Not) bringing your whole self to work: The gendered experience of upward mobility in the UK Civil Service by Sam Friedman.
The Class Ceiling, Why it Pays to be Privileged by Sam Friedman and Daniel Laurison.
From Aristocratic to Ordinary: Shifting Modes of Elite Distinction, American Sociological Review by Sam Friedman and Aaron Reeves.
LSE iQ is a university podcast by the London School of Economics and Political Science.
More episodes of the podcast LSE Podcasts
LSE: The Ballpark | How to help left behind regions and workers with Professor Gordon Hanson
05/01/2026
LSE: The Ballpark | The promise and peril of Trump’s America First with Professor Charles Kupchan
15/12/2025
Will the next World War be a cyberwar?
02/12/2025
LSE: The Ballpark | Autocracy 2.0: How China’s Rise Reinvented Tyranny with Dr Jennifer Lind
17/11/2025
Will AI free us from work?
04/11/2025
ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.