Research group: Class
Tackling inequality by understanding the role of class in modern society and its relationship with other social divisions.
Summary
About our research
Our mission is to ensure that social class is recognised as a major influence on how we all live.
Our researchers study class interests and inequalities in all aspects of life, from work, housing and education, to sport, leisure and consumption.
We also research the relationships between class and other social divisions and identities such as age, race, disability and sexuality – relationships that can compound conflict, crisis and inequality in a capitalist society.
We work with the local authorities, social services and other community organisations to help them reflect the needs of the people they serve.
We also support Manchester Met in ensuring its strategies, projects and curriculum promote class equality.
Established in 2021, our ambition is to become a world-renowned centre in social class research, sharing knowledge and informing wider research and policy-making.
Our work counters the view that social class is historic and no longer helpful in understanding modern culture or social problems.
Our aims are to:
- raise the profile of social class and the key role it plays in shaping society
- establish an active research culture through collaborations, bids and postgraduate research
- support Manchester Met in developing strategies and projects that promote social equality
- share knowledge to help reduce class inequality in Greater Manchester, the UK and globally
Research themes
We explore five research themes:
- communities and place
- employment and education
- culture and consumption
- intersections
- capitalism: conflict, crisis and inequality
We are also working to explore the way class is taught at Manchester Met, and reflected in its strategies and projects. And we promote class teaching and scholarship on professional practice programmes and continuous professional development courses.
Selected projects
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Selected publications
- Albertson, K and Whittle, R (forthcoming) Things Can’t Only Get Better: Inequality and democracy over a life-span in Pollock, G and Nico, M (eds) Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Inequalities and the Life Course. London: Routledge
- Child, D (2019) Working Aesthetics: Labour, Art and Capitalism London: Radical Aesthetics Radical Art/Bloomsbury
- Di Feliciantonio, C and Dagkouly-Kyriakoglou, M (2020) The housing pathways of lesbian and gay youth and intergenerational family relations: A Southern European perspective Housing Studies online
- Genn, R (2021) Personal Story: Street fighting girls The New Statesman, 11 March 2021
- Ingram, N (2018) Working-Class Boys and Educational Success Palgrave Macmillan UK
- Johansson, M and Jones, S (2019) Interlopers in Class: A duoethnography of working-class women academics Gender, Work and Organization 26(6), pp 789-804
- Pollock, S and Parkinson, K (2019) Social Work and Society Political and Ideological Perspectives Bristol: Policy Press
- Porter, C (2019) Supporter Ownership in English Football: Class, Culture and Politics Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
- Sant, E and Brown, T (2021) The fantasy of the populist disease and the educational cure British Educational Research Journal, 47(2), pp 409-426
- Snee, H and Goswami, H (2021) Who Cares? Social Mobility and the ‘Class Ceiling’ in Nursing Sociological Research Online, 26(3), pp 562–580
- Withers, A (2019) Revolution in the everyday: Using Gramsci to inspire hope and change with social workers Critical and Radical Social Work, 7(2), pp 267-27
Partners
Organisations we work with
British Council
GM4Women
Arts Emergency
Directors of Adult Social Services
Contact
Contact us
You can contact individual members of the team through their staff profiles.
For general enquiries, please contact our research group leads Dr Chris Porter and Dr Helene Snee.