It’s all wealth, social mobility and class ceilings in this week’s episode as we ask ourselves: How does social mobility work, and why does it matter for culture and inequality?

Dave O’Brien talks with Maren Toft (Uni Oslo) and Sam Friedman (LSE) about parental wealth, cultural matching, the class ceiling and labour market outcomes. How does the bank of mum and dad contribute to a class ceiling in Norwegian social mobility? Why does it matter that you have the same cultural tastes as those hiring you for a job? And how are these cultural mechanisms of social mobility gendered?

Dave, Sam and Maren discuss various papers and demonstrate how privileges in the labour market are profoundly material, cultural and symbolic at the same time. In the final stretch of the episode, they explore various promising new directions for the field of social mobility and culture research.

Papers (all open access):

- Adamson, M. & M. Johansson (2020) - Writing Class In and Out: Construction of Class in Elite Businesswomen’s autobiographies - Sociology https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038520962393

- Rivera, L.A. (2012) Hiring as Cultural Matching: The Case of Elite Professional Service Firms - American Sociological Review https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122412463213

- Toft, M. & S. Friedman (2020) Family Wealth and the Class Ceiling: The Propulsive Power of the Bank of Mum and Dad - Sociology https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038520922537

Class assignments separately available on our Soundcloud stream.