Network Groups

Helene Snee and Chris Porter

Education has a contradictory relationship with social class, offering both emancipatory potential and the reproduction of classed advantages. Social mobility meanwhile is often put forward as a way of tackling class inequality but raises its own questions about the accompanying vision of social justice. Educational pathways and Classed Trajectories aims to bring together researchers, practitioners, campaigners and anyone interested in these concerns to advance research agendas, develop innovative methodologies, promote reform, and keep class on the curriculum. Areas of interest might include exploring classed educational inequalities and how these relate to other social divisions; lived experiences of class among students and staff at all levels of education; critical pedagogies and teaching class; and fostering critical perspectives on social mobility.

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Laura Minor and Jonny Smith

This group explores the relationship between class and media across film, television, radioand digital platforms. Covering both British and international contexts, we examine how class shapes production as well as how it is represented and experienced by audiences. Drawing on cultural studies, media studies, and industry research, we bring together scholars working across historical and contemporary formations to ask urgent questions about inequality, identity, and power. We welcome researchers at all career stages and are committed to building a lively, cross-disciplinary community that connects academic work with partners in broadcasting, heritage, the arts, and the wider public.

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Lindesay Dawe and Tanja Poppelreuter

The history of social housing in Great Britain is a story of shifting political ideals, economic pressures, and changing ideas about class, community, and the role of the state. For the professional class in Britain (architects, town planners, administrators) their ambitions for housing – from the late 19th C – were inextricably linked to a purpose of reshaping the city and wider public health reform. Challenges in delivering housing reform through the 20th C were multi-layered as policies, design philosophies, and economic conditions changed. For those who were the prime beneficiaries, the British working class, better housing conditions under municipal authority included rent control, tenant protection and limits on the power of the landlord, although by the mid-twentieth century tensions between expectations and delivery were never far from the surface. The aims of this group is to better understand ideologies that led to the building of different types of housing. We are interested in juxtaposing positions held by councils, planners, developers, architects, landlords and tenants historically and currently. The group also investigates stereotypical notions associated with people living in social housing, social stigmatisation and the aftermath of regeneration and gentrification. We are open to all members of the public and seek young as well as established researchers, members of public institutions, representatives of councils and industries to come together to learn more about the complexities of housing.

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Ursula Hurley

The Working Words Collective is the Creative Writing Interest Group for the Cultures of Class network. We bring together anyone interested in reading, writing, or sharing stories—individuals, community groups, writers, and practitioners—to recognise and connect creative work shaped by a wide range of experiences and backgrounds. Working with the Northern School of Writing and the English Research Centre at the University of Salford, we offer an open and supportive space to explore how class and creativity meet. Through workshops, conversations, and collaborative projects, we aim to build a lively, welcoming community that values storytelling as a powerful way to understand ourselves and the world.

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Jonathan Lord and Vicki Harvey

This group aims to inform workers and able changemakers to drive equity and to elevate the lived experience of frontline workers through rigorous research and actionable scientific evidence. Together, we work to develop diverse, equitable, and truly inclusive working conditions.