Department of Sociology and Criminology Undergraduate Lecture

Aaron Reeves is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology at the LSE. His work examines issues related to health and social class and he is co-editor of the British Journal of Sociology.

Sam Friedman is Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science and the coauthor of The Class Ceiling: Why it Pays to be Privileged and author of Comedy and Distinction: The Cultural Currency of a “Good” Sense of Humour. He is co-editor of the British Journal of Sociology.

Think of the British elite and familiar caricatures spring to mind. But are today’s power brokers a conservative chumocracy, born to privilege and anointed at Eton and Oxford? Or is a new progressive elite emerging with different values and political instincts? We combed through a trove of data in search of an answer, scrutinizing the profiles, interests, and careers of over 125,000 members of the British elite from the late 1890s to today. At the heart of the study is the historical database of Who’s Who, but we also mined genealogical records, examined probate data, and interviewed over 200 leading figures from a wide range of backgrounds and professions to uncover who runs Britain, how they think, and what they want.

What we found is that there is less movement at the top than we think. Yes, there has been some progress on including women and Black and Asian Brits, but those born into the top 1 percent are just as likely to get into the elite today as they were 125 years ago. What has changed is how elites present themselves. Today’s elite pedal hard to convince us they are perfectly ordinary. Why should we care? Because the elites we have affect the politics we get. While scholars have long proposed that the family you are born into, and the schools you attend, leave a mark on the exercise of power, the empirical evidence has been thin until now.

Reception to follow in LTB2.

All welcome to attend.

This lecture is part of an open series, hosted by the Department of Sociology and Criminology