Main content

Class and Social Mobility

Historian Selina Todd, author of Snakes and Ladders, David Goodhart, author of Head Hand Heart, sociolinguist Sadie Ryan and data scientist Timandra Harkness

How easy is it to climb out of the working class in Britain? Have attitudes to social mobility changed at all? Matthew Sweet talks to Professor Selina Todd about her latest book, Snakes and Ladders, which explores the myths and realities of the past century. They're joined by an accents specialist, a policy thinker and journalist, and a data analyst.

Professor Selina Todd is author of Snakes and Ladders: The Great British Social Mobility Myth; The People: The Rise and Fall of the Working Class 1910-2010; Tastes of Honey The Making of Shelagh Delaney and a Cultural Revolution

David Goodhart is the author of Head, Hand, Heart: The Struggle for Dignity and Status in the 21st Century (2020). He is Head of Policy Exchange's Demography, Immigration, and Integration Unit; and, he is also one of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) board commissioners. He is the author of .

Timandra Harkness is the author of Big Data: Does Size Matter and presents Radio 4 series including Divided Nation and Future Proofing

Dr Sadie Ryan is part of the Manchester Voices project https://www.manchestervoices.org/project-team/ and presents a podcast https://www.accentricity-podcast.com/
You can hear more about the Manchester project in this episode of New Thinking /programmes/p07h30hm

You might also be interested in Free Thinking programmes exploring
The council estate in culture with artists George Shaw and Kader Attia , drama specialist Katie Beswick and writer Dreda Say Mitchell /programmes/m0003596
City Life, estate living and lockdown with poet Caleb Femi, Katie Beswick, and urban researchers Julia King and Irit Katz /programmes/m000nvk2
Class in Britain - a review of Shelagh Delaney's play; Lindsay Johns, Douglas Murray and the former headmaster of Eton Tony Little /programmes/p02twczj
Philip Dodd with Douglas Murray, author of The Madness of Crowds, the commentator David Goodhart, the writer and campaigner Beatrix Campbell, and the academic Maya Goodfellow, author of Hostile Environment - How Immigrants Became Scapegoats, reflect on the role of culture and identity in politics in Europe and post election Britain /programmes/m000cb2f

Producer: Ruth Watts

Available now

44 minutes

Last on

Thu 4 Feb 2021 22:00

Broadcast

  • Thu 4 Feb 2021 22:00

Featured in...

The Arts & Ideas Podcast

The Arts & Ideas Podcast

You can download all the past episodes of Radio 3's Free Thinking

Discussions and talks from the Free Thinking Festival 2019

Discussions and talks from the Free Thinking Festival 2019

Angry politics, what we can’t say, being diplomatic, weeping, emotion in music, film & TV

Click to listen to discussions, talks and music as the Free Thinking Festival 2019 Gets Emotional

Click to listen to discussions, talks and music as the Free Thinking Festival 2019 Gets Emotional

Angry politics, what we can’t say, being diplomatic, weeping, emotion in music, film & TV

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE programmes from the Free Thinking Festival 2018: The One & the Many

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE programmes from the Free Thinking Festival 2018: The One & the Many

We examine the fast-changing relationship between the individual & the crowd

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE all programmes, images, clips & features from 2017's festival

Free Thinking Festival 2017: The Speed of Life