Cracking the Class Code

How the Opportunity Game Is Rigged - And How Firms Can Help Fix It
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-4473-7758-0
Verlag: Bristol University Press

Buch, Englisch, 256 Seiten, Format (B × H): 129 mm x 198 mm

Reveals the class markers that operate within the world’s most powerful firms and outlines the practical steps for leading employers to dismantle class barriers.

Class, so the narrative goes, has been banished to the past in our modern meritocratic world. Yet across the world’s major economies, entry to the elite remains governed by a set of unwritten and largely invisible workplace class codes: rules encompassing ways of speaking and social etiquette, hidden cultural norms, and the confidence to advocate for yourself in highly competitive environments — codes passed down through generations.

In this groundbreaking global study, Lee Elliot Major and Anne-Marie Sim lay bare the class markers that operate within the world’s most powerful firms, revealing how they connect to a wider class system structured around a small, detached elite and everyone else. They outline ten practical steps for leading employers to dismantle class barriers and make the urgent case for a fairer system in which everyone has a genuine chance to lead a decent life, whatever path they choose.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Elliot Major, Lee

Sim, Anne-Marie

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gewalt und Diskriminierung: Soziale Aspekte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Soziale Mobilität
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Soziale Gruppen & Klassen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction

Chapter 1 – Cracking the class code

Part I: Class

Chapter 2 - The death (and rebirth) of class

Chapter 3 - The detached elite

PART II: Elite powerhouses

Chapter 4 - Elite reproduction machines

Chapter 5 – Powerhouses of the global meritocracy

Chapter 6 – Firm divides

PART III: Class codes

Chapter 7 – How you look (appearance codes)

Chapter 8 - How you speak (linguistic codes)

Chapter 9 – How you play (leisure codes)

Chapter 10 – How you act (navigational codes)

PART IV: The way ahead

Chapter 11 – Resetting the rules

Chapter 12 – The road to renewal

Über Autor(innen)

Lee Elliot Major is Britain’s first Professor of Social Mobility, based at the University of Exeter. He was previously Chief Executive of the Sutton Trust, the UK’s leading social mobility foundation. A leading voice in national and international education debates, he advises corporate, government and education leaders across the globe. His award-winning books include Equity in Education and Social Mobility and Its Enemies. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and was awarded an OBE in the 2019 Queen’s Honours.

Anne-Marie Sim is co-founder and lead of the South-West Social Mobility Commission at the University of Exeter. She was previously a strategy consultant with the Boston Consulting Group, where she worked with leading UK and global companies. She holds a DPhil and Masters in anthropology and Bachelors in Economics and Management from the University of Oxford.