Cracking the Class Code

How Global Elites Came to Rule the World
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 ten 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 Soziale Gruppen & Klassen
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Soziale Mobilität
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gewalt und Diskriminierung: Soziale Aspekte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Part 1: The elite global class

Introduction: JD Vance and the social test

1. Class, the global taboo.

2. How modern global elites came to rule the world

3. The global elite

4. Elite breeding grounds

Part 2: Global class markers

5. Accent prestige and the Language of Opportunity

6. Rural/urban divides (place of origin)

7. Cultural capital/Behavioural norms/self-advocacy

8. Hobbies and holidays

Part 3: Cracking elite class codes

9. Levelling the playing field – removing barriers to opportunity

10. Diverse or dystopian future?

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 for leading UK and global companies. She holds a DPhil and Masters in anthropology and Bachelors in Economics and Management from the University of Oxford.