Full Description
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.
Contents
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?
