Benjamin Brundu-Gonzalez

This figure shows the percentage of respondents in 35 countries across the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) and the Integrated Values Survey (IVS) who rate “hard work” as more important than structural factors for getting ahead in life. Dark blue diamonds (IVS) and dark green circles (ISSP) represent survey year averages. Light blue and light green lines plot the trend in meritocratic beliefs across the five-year cohorts, on the basis of locally weighted least squares regressions on the cohort-country means (light blue diamonds [IVS] and light green circles [ISSP]). IVS data show whether respondents rate hard work (1) or luck and connections (0) as the more important factor for achieving a better life. ISSP data show the share of respondents who rate hard work as more important than “knowing the right people” and “coming from a wealthy family” for getting ahead in life.

The figure shows annualized change scores (subtracting the earliest from the latest value and standardizing by the number of years/cohorts). This figure is only included in the supplementary material.

How has the public belief in meritocracy changed over time? We address this question in our new Data Viz (@sociusjournal.bsky.social) by examining trends in popular beliefs across cohorts and periods in 35 countries, based on two datasets.

🔗 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23780231261425841

I want to take you back, for a moment, to 2020. We are at the beginning of the pandemic and many of us are working remotely. I don't remember this time particularly fondly--this was pre COVID-19 vaccines, and there was a lot of rhetoric around how the virus had come from China. 🧵

How are immigrants' understandings of ethnicity influenced by class? This study draws on interviews with 28 Chinese immigrants in the UK to examine how border‑crossing experiences shape their views of ethnicity, identity, and ethnic boundaries.

#EarlyView in #BJS ➡️ buff.ly/XHNuOON

Critique of AI Reader Reader: Critique of ‘AI’ Technologies Within Academia English Reader Please feel free to add suitable titles below the respective chapter (Research Articles, Books, Chapters in Ed. Vol.). You may ...

I'm working on a reader (in both English and German) to collect literature critical of the employment of generative AI technologies within academic contexts.

Please feel free to add relevant titles here:
docs.google.com/document/d/1...

In academia, class background strongly shapes who advances and who stalls.

From June 14th to 19th 2026 the 3rd edition of the summer school on "Elites, Power and Inequality" will take place at the University of Lausanne. Program and registration here: www.unil.ch/unil/en/home...

Deadline is 1st April 2026.

Leading universities urged to take no more than 10% of students from private schools Expanding access to Oxbridge and other leading institutions would boost social mobility, say authors of new book

"pupils from prestigious private schools who went to leading universities were 52 times more likely to reach elite positions in society than those who attended any other schools."
#highered #academicsky #edchat #inequality #Oxbridge #education
www.theguardian.com/education/20...

How to Read an "AI" Press Release — Sonja Drimmer Every so often someone like Mark Zuckerberg or Sam Altman will dribble out some unadorned text in Times New Roman font, announcing with stentorian certitude the advent of a new world that their latest...

Zuckerberg farted out some nonsense today, and since most media outlets refuse to report critically any time a tech CEO offers them some a pseudoserious press release, I've decided to do it for them.

sonjadrimmer.com/blog-1/2025/7/30/how-to-read-an-ai-press-release

“It’s so discriminatory. If you’re not at university, you are a nobody in society.” – Daniel, secondary school student, Chile

Carlos Palma-Amestoy on the moral imperatives that underpin a student’s decision to enter higher education.

#OnlineFirst in the journal buff.ly/meRukDb

"For large parts of the world’s population, the apocalypse does not point to a distant future but represents a (very real) lived experience in the present."
ephemerajournal.org/current-issue

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers | RGS Journal | Wiley Online Library The trope of the English North–South divide has come to frame a plethora of national crises in recent years, with the supposedly white working-class North understood as having been ‘left behind’ by L...

It's out! It's here! My first ever journal article 'Postimperial melancholia and the English North–South divide: Reading the life stories of Northern women of colour in London' is out today with @tibg.bsky.social 🤩
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

BJPolS abstract discussing the role of symbolic right-wing politics in cultural consumption, specifically referencing wine and classical music in pubs, based on a survey from Switzerland with 1,550 respondents.

"We argue that symbolic class signalling has gained in importance due to the political realignment along the cultural dimension, and we expect radical right parties to benefit most from it" - @dweisstanner.bsky.social & @saengler.bsky.social

Read #OpenAccess - cup.org/3GSCIKV

How working-class culture became an elite game From Nigel Farage's pints of ale to Giorgia Meloni's tomato selfies, how are working-class tastes weaponised by the leaders of far-right political parties?

blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities...

Question for #AcademicSky and specifically folks who teach sociology:

Any textbook recommendations for teaching sociological theory to undergrads?

(I am teaching theory for the first time this fall!)

This one would be useful I think!

@mquijoux.bsky.social

Miro Born stands smiling at the camera and holding his comic

cover of the comic, showing a woman climbing a ladder. The text reads 'Miro Born, Irem Kurt, Movin' on up: a social mobility comic'

a page from miro's comic, showing a conversation between a group of people

📚 From Research to Comic: @miroborn.bsky.social's Exploration of Social Mobility 🔗

Together with illustrator Irem Kurt, ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow Anthony Miro Born created a short comic on social mobility.

Read more ➡️ www.lse.ac.uk/Methodology/...

Read the comic 👉 www.anthonymiroborn.com/comic

Meritocracy from below: dreams, divisions, and the struggle for merit in a stigmatised neighbourhood The ideal of a meritocratic society continues to exert significant normative power in political and public discourse, including in discussions about marginalised spaces and neighbourhoods. However,...

My new article in @city-journal.bsky.social argues for a critical understanding of the meritocratic ideal among urban researchers. In particular, it explores the consequences of how this ideal is reproduced in stigmatised neighbourhoods:
doi.org/10.1080/1360.... @lsemethodology.bsky.social

What do tax cuts for the rich do?

They increase inequality.

They have no effect on economic growth or unemployment.

"Our results provide strong evidence against the influential political–economic idea that tax cuts for the rich ‘trickle down’ to boost the wider economy."

Is Starmer’s Labour far right?

This question sounds absurd, but today, it is not only necessary but urgent to ask for anyone who still cares about democracy

My thoughts on @reacpolrn.bsky.social

reacpol.net/starmer-far-...

📣 New paper by Malik Fercovic | Class Mistreatment in Elite Settings: Upward Mobility and Cross-class Interactions

Building on 60 interviews, this paper explores the discrimination and stigmatisation of the upwardly mobile in universities and professional workplaces in Chile.

🔗 buff.ly/WixpiPQ

Can you reach a top economic position 💰🏦 without graduating 🎓 from college? It is VERY unlikely and, in the US 🇺🇸, the proportion of economic elites without a college degree is even smaller than in many other advanced economies. Check out our BJS paper: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

[ #socioelites ] Call for participation for the workshop ‘Education and training of the entrepreneurial elite: life paths and world views’, organised on the 15th and 16th October 2025 at the University of Lausanne @unil.bsky.social

⌛️ 30th May 2025: submission of proposals
🗣️ English/French

Students' Interactional Cultural Capital and Academic Performance in Test‐ and Teacher‐Based Assessments Qualitative work highlights the significance of students' interactional cultural capital in educational settings—that is, cultural resources that help to navigate/interact with educational institutio....

New paper out with @dieuwkezwier.bsky.social in @bjse.bsky.social on students’ interactional cultural capital and school performance @aissr.bsky.social @fmg-uva.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

PhD scholarship at the Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen (UCPH)

We're hiring a fully funded PhD student in #sociology here in wonderful Copenhagen!

Please share!

Learn more 👇

employment.ku.dk/phd/?show=16...

No, far-right parties are not "left-wing" on socio-economic issues. While some might TALK left, they continue to VOTE right. Read this @etui.bsky.social Policy Brief that @gabrielagreilinger.bsky.social and I wrote last year.

🚨 New article 🚨
In "Elites and ordinariness in cross-status encounters: Adding Goffman's ritual interaction order to sociological interpretations", @andersvassenden.bsky.social develops the sociology of how higher-class people downplay and conceal their status.

Open Access 👇
doi.org/10.1177/0001...

L'ensemble des appels du prochain congrès de l'Association française de sociologie à l'Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès du 8 au 11 juillet 2025 sont disponibles ⬇️⬇️⬇️

A vos claviers!

(Fermeture des appels fin janvier 2025 et réponses dans le courant mars-avril)

afs-socio.fr/appels_rt_to...

"We show that male [college] students are 18.6% more likely than female students to receive favorable grade changes."

What class do Britons say they are?

Middle class: 36%
Working class: 56%

Those in ABC1 households
Middle class: 47%
Working class: 46%

Those in C2DE households
Middle class: 21%
Working class: 70%

yougov.co.uk/society/arti...