SOCIAL SCIENCE / Social Classes & Economic Disparity

Using a unique archive spanning the lifetime of twenty council estates in the UK, this book examines what we can learn from council housing’s failings and successes for building sustainable communities in the future.

This book traces the transition to the graduate labour market of a cohort of middle-class and working-class young people. Using personal stories and voices, it provides fascinating insights into their experience of graduate employment and how their life-course transitions are shaped by their social backgrounds and education.

Education is seen as central to social mobility and equality and, following a drive to raise learners’ aspirations, an ‘aspiration industry’ has emerged. This book traces education policy developments and argues that for learners to have aspirations that do not require qualifications should be regarded as different, not wrong.

Drawing on empirical research, this book provides an innovative exploration of youth and work, showing how youth identities are connected with the dynamics of labour and value in contemporary capitalism.

Alice Bradbury discusses how the meritocracy myth reinforces educational inequalities and analyses how the recent educational developments of datafication and neuroscience might challenge how we classify and label children as we rebuild a post-pandemic schooling system.

This book provides a culturally nuanced analysis of key issues relating to youth unemployment. Examining the causes and consequences of youth unemployment, it assesses ways forward to promote economic self-sufficiency.

Anna Tarrant’s revealing research explores the dynamics and diversity of men’s caring roles in low-income households at various stages of their lives. It sheds light on men’s participation in care and the factors that affect it, including class, culture, work and the impact of austerity.

India’s ageing population is growing rapidly. This book examines living arrangements across India and their impact on the provision of care for older adults in India.

Drawing on qualitative fieldwork, this book sheds much-needed light on how sustainability-oriented households balance priorities and get things done in day-to-day life, offering crucial insights about eco-conscious living at an individual level.

This book examines the urgent workplace challenges we’re facing today with an interdisciplinary and historical analysis that challenges and broadens the scope of existing economic literature. Exploring the current economic proposals to address these issues, it offers ways forward for greater economic social justice and equality at work.

Contributing to debates on the unpredictability of middle-class attitudes and their changing relations with the welfare states in Europe, this book identifies key trends in the literature and considers the impact of recent welfare reforms on the middle class.

School-age children’s everyday lives are changing as they are immersed in digital leisure and organised activities. However, our current understandings of these transitions are race-blind. Presenting the first study of middle-class British Indian families, this book reveals the salience of race and class in shaping parenting cultures and children.