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Respectable: the experience of class

3,157 views · Published 5 May 2016 · 1:24:10 · Indexed 12 November 2026

Channel: LSE · 2016 · Education

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Date: Tuesday 3 May 2016
Time:  6.30-8pm
Venue: Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building
Speaker:  Lynsey Hanley
Chair: Professor Mike Savage

We talk a lot about the role class plays in British society, but how exactly do we move from one 'class' to another - and, if we can do so, what effect does it have on us? In her new book which she will discuss this in lecture, Lynsey Hanley explains that to be 'respectable' is to be neither rough nor posh, neither rich nor especially poor. Drawing on her own experience growing up on the Birmingham estate of Chelmsley Wood - living through the Thatcher years, listening to the Pet Shop Boys and Erasure, reading her parents' Daily Mirror and her grandparents' Sun - Hanley shows how social mobility can be double-edged unless we recognize the psychological impact of class and its creation of self-limiting obstacles.

Lynsey Hanley is a Visiting Fellow in Cultural Studies at Liverpool John Moores University and author of Respectable: The Experience of Class.

Mike Savage (@MikeSav47032563) is Martin White Professor of Sociology, head of the department of Sociology and Co-Director of the LSE International Inequalities Institute. 

The Department of Sociology at LSE (@LSEsociology) was established in 1904 and remains committed to top quality teaching and leading research and scholarship today.

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