"Today’s elite may see itself as more meritocratic and down-to-earth, but do its claims of progressive social change stand up?" Class privilege continues to shape who reaches the top, write @samfriedman.bsky.social & @aaronreeves.bsky.social fabians.org.uk/common-people/

Common People | Fabian Society

Fabian Society

fabians.org.uk

The new issue of Contexts is out! As the new Books Editor, I'm particularly jazzed about @joyamisra.bsky.social's banging review of RF Kuang's Katabasis, but lots of great public-facing work in here!

Contexts Magazine@contexts.org · last mo.

New issue! Our Spring '26 issue is free to read, share, and download through July 22. ➡️ journals.sagepub.com/home/ctx

Just out in @socialforcesfan.bsky.social some of our work comparing Elites in Brazil and South Africa! Using a small survey with random sample of CEOs, legislators, and top bureaucrats in both countries, we unpack the contradictory ways elite think about merit and taxation and redistrution.

My Labour PPC backstory: I grew up in a single parent family on a council estate in East London My Tory PPC backstory: my grandparents were small businessmen My Reform PPC backstory: my grandparents came to this country legally My Restore PPC backstory: I am descended from white Rhodesians

Will Jennings📉🗳️@drjennings.bsky.social · 2mo ago

It's quite a fun exercise to try to work out what the most working class and most middle class version of the story of your own social background you could tell. (I could tell wildly different stories about my own social class by picking the biographies of two grandparents - one from each parent.)

Our book Trigger Points is now out in open access. Huge thanks to Mike Savage for a terrific foreword and to Michèle Lamont, Silja Häusermann and Daniel Ziblatt for their kind words. Link below: @mikesavagelse.bsky.social @mlamont.bsky.social @siljahausermann.bsky.social @dziblatt.bsky.social

Summer School: Class, Culture & Discontents 📆 July 23rd - 24th 📍London Full programme with all star line up ⭐ 23rd July feat @darrenchetty.bsky.social @jolittler.bsky.social @jasnijjar.bsky.social etc on prison education, meritocracy, colonialism, war + more www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/summer-sch...

🎙️ Who really runs Britain? In this podcast, @samfriedman.bsky.social and @aaronreeves.bsky.social unpack the “elite within the elite”, the factions shaping the UK’s future, the importance of being “meritocratically legitimate” and the myth of being “just ordinary”. Listen now 👇

Peter York's Culture Wars House Party: Professors Sam Friedman and Aaron Reeves: Myths and Realities of the British Elite

Professors Sam Friedman and Aaron Reeves of the London School of Economics, authors of Born to Rule – a forensic, often very funny X‑ray of the British establishment, drawn from that venerable ...

buff.ly

Who really runs Britain — and why do they insist they're just ordinary? Great fun convo withLSE profs @samfriedman.bsky.social & @aaronreeves.bsky.social authors of Born to Rule with @peteryork.bsky.social on his Peter York's Culture Wars House Party Podcast 🎧 podfollow.com/peter-yorks-...

Drawing on qualitative interviews with middle-class households aged 30 to 39 in Paris, this paper examines how parental financial support is negotiated among homebuyers and renters and how it affects family relationships. #EarlyView in #BJS ➡️ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

This looks like excellent and fascinating work! Somewhat surprisingly it resonates with what @samfriedman.bsky.social and I found in the UK, i.e., access to elite positions (beyond just politicians) has been fairly stable across C20 among people born into wealth www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...

Born to Rule — Harvard University Press

The Economist, Best Books of 2024The Times, Best Ideas Books of 2024A uniquely data-rich analysis of the British elite from the Victorian era to today: who gets in, how they get there, what they like ...

hup.harvard.edu

James Feigenbaum@jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Excited to share an updated paper from a longstanding agenda with Andy Hall, @dthompson.bsky.social, and Jesse Yoder: "Fortunate Sons: Elite Political Selection in American History" We link Members of Congress (+ their families) to the complete count census, covering congresses from 1850-the 2000s

This is fascinating - and very very important. Don't be put off by the pic. @samfriedman.bsky.social with #DavidMarr #LateNightLive www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

The false stories the British elite tell about themselves - ABC listen

The British elite present themselves as part of a new, open, dynamic meritocracy. Is that true? Of course not, and two sociologists have the data to prove it. Guest: Professor Sam Friedman, a sociolog...

abc.net.au

Great paper! Worth a read

Tim White@timwhite100.bsky.social · 4mo ago

New paper in @bjsociology.bsky.social: ‘Privileged Precarity’. It explores how middle class young professionals leverage housing insecurity to synchronise their lives with the rhythms of precarious labour markets. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Please join us online on Wednesday March 11 (tomorrow!) at 3pm for @samfriedman.bsky.social (LSE) and Rose Butler (Deakin) for our next online seminar "Class Diplomacy: Cross-Class Friendship and Social Mobility'

Class Diplomacy: Cross-Class Friendship and Social Mobility

Negotiating class based tensions and the politics of friendship

eventbrite.com.au

🧵on my new paper "Synthetic personas distort the structure of human belief systems" w Roberto Cerina I'm v excited about... 🚨 Do synthetic samples look like human samples? We compare 28 LLMs to the 2024 General Social Survey (GSS) to find out + develop host of diagnostics...

Had a great time talking to @drdaveobrien.bsky.social about The Division of Rationalized Labor. Listen to the podcast here: newbooksnetwork.com/the-division...

To develop a reasonable position on any proposed tax increase on the wealthy, we need to dispel the “millionaire exodus” narrative. III working paper by @samfriedman.bsky.social, @andy-summers.bsky.social, Victoria Gronwald, and Emma Taylor cited in a new article for TIME ⬇️

Tax the Rich. They’re Not Going Anywhere

Christopher Marquis and Nick Romeo expose the fallacies behind the millionaire-exodus panic.

buff.ly

2025 #ThrowBackPaper (open access) Wealthy people tend to vote Tory. But do changes in wealth have an effect on vote choice? Drawing on an 11-year panel from 🇬🇧 we found that changes in patrimony (in terms of number & value of assets) is unrelated to vote choice www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

This looks interesting. @petergeoghegan.bsky.social talks to @samfriedman.bsky.social. Sounds like Born to Rule is worth a read. democracyforsale.substack.com/p/who-really...

Who really rules Britain?

I talked to Sam Friedman about Britain’s elite - and its political power

democracyforsale.substack.com

Matt Goodwin once wrote that Britain is ruled by a ‘woke elite’ that comprises *as much as 25 per cent of the population* If you want to watch an expert take down of this canard, @samfriedman.bsky.social on Democracy for Sale is very good democracyforsale.substack.com/p/who-really...

Who really rules Britain?

I talked to Sam Friedman about Britain’s elite - and its political power

democracyforsale.substack.com

Great new paper! A similar study in the U.K. is long overdue. A lot of elite employers in the U.K. have begun to take class background seriously, but universities remain woefully behind

Anna Stansbury@annastansbury.bsky.social · 6mo ago

📢now forthcoming in ECMA! The Class Gap in Career Progression: Evidence from US Academia Class is rarely a focus of research or DEI in elite US occupations. Evidence suggests it should be: we find a large class gap in at least one occupation - tenure-track academia...🧵

Who really are the élite? Seems to matter given snake oil merchants like Farage and Trump like to cast themselves as “men of the people” when, in reality, they were brought up in conditions of priviledge…

Peter Geoghegan@petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Was a real pleasure to have @samfriedman.bsky.social on Democracy for Sale talking about who runs Britain. Would really recommend reading this and watching the interview with him

Was a real pleasure to have @samfriedman.bsky.social on Democracy for Sale talking about who runs Britain. Would really recommend reading this and watching the interview with him

Sam Friedman@samfriedman.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I spoke to the brilliant @petergeoghegan.bsky.social about the British elite and how they profit from the symbolic market for ordinariness democracyforsale.substack.com/p/who-really...

I spoke to the brilliant @petergeoghegan.bsky.social about the British elite and how they profit from the symbolic market for ordinariness democracyforsale.substack.com/p/who-really...

Who really rules Britain?

I talked to Sam Friedman about Britain’s elite - and its political power

democracyforsale.substack.com

work with me and @drdaveobrien.bsky.social as part of @creativepec.bsky.social! we're recruiting a postdoc to work on the arts, culture and heritage sectors using quantitative methods. please share, please feel free to email me directly with any Qs! jobsite.sheffield.ac.uk/job/Sheffiel...

This is a great opportunity to work on cutting-edge research!

Per Engzell@pengzell.bsky.social · 7mo ago

JOB! I'm hiring a postdoc for 2 years on my ERC MaMo project. Looking for someone with strong quant methods, ongoing work close to the project's aims, and a desire to publish in sociology. Start flexible in the next 12 months. Formal call out shortly, but contact me first.

What happens when venture capitalists try to reinvent housing in their own image? Find out in my new @ijurresearch.bsky.social article ‘Hyperscaling Housing’ It traces VC-fuelled attempts to aggressively scale real estate start-ups, and the devastating consequences for tenants.

HYPERSCALING HOUSING: Venture Capital, Real Estate Start‐Ups and the Race to Build a Global Residential Brand

What happens when venture capitalists try to reinvent housing in their own image? Synonymous with the rise of Big Tech, venture capitalists (VCs) are asset managers that invest in early-stage compani...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Since the hegemon's eye is now focussing on Greenland, I recommend revisting our research note in @bjsociology.bsky.social on the Power elite in Greenland onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

On autosociobiography and social mobility: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... @mikesavagelse.bsky.social @samfriedman.bsky.social

Beyond the ‘Scholarship Boy’ paradigm: Autosociobiography and social mobility - Sam Friedman, Mike Savage, Carlos Spoerhase, 2025

This article reflects on the potential of the rapidly emerging literary genre of autosociobiography to extend analyses of the personal experience and feelings a...

journals.sagepub.com

I’m hiring a postdoc! Flexible in terms of details, but I’m looking for someone to collaborate with on research about labor market inequality. I’ll review applications as they come in and the posting just went up here: apply.interfolio.com/178873

Paperback publication day for Born to Rule! 🥳👀🎄🎅