Ruth Adams comments on new research on social class in Britain

On Wednesday 3 April, Dr Ruth Adams made an appearance on the BBC Radio programme, ‘Good Evening Wales’. She was asked, alongside Turner Prize winning artist Grayson Perry, to comment on new research on social class in Britain, published this week. The data came from the largest study of class in the UK to date, the Great British Class Survey, a collaboration between the BBC and academic social scientists, with more than 161,000 participants.

Employing a model derived from the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, the survey measured economic capital (income, savings, house value), social capital – the number and status of people someone knows, and cultural capital, defined as the extent and nature of cultural interests and activities. The researchers claim that the traditional categories of working, middle and upper class are now outdated, and instead propose a new model of seven social classes ranging from the elite at the top to a ‘precariat’ – the poor, precarious proletariat – at the bottom.

You can read more about the research, download the findings published in the journal Sociology.
There is also a BBC survey to find out which of the seven new classes you belong to here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22007058