ESRC
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COMPLIANCE WITH THE DATA PROTECTION ACT
1998
In accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998, the personal data provided on this form will be processed by ESRC, and may be held
on computerised database and/or manual files. Further details may be found in the guidance notes
Research Grants
PROPOSAL
Document Status: With Council
ESRC Reference:
Future Research Leaders - Full Proposals
Organisation where the Grant would be held
Research Organisation
Reference:
Organisation
Division or Department
Sociology
Project Title [up to 150 chars]
The Shifting Cultural Identities and Practices of the Socially Mobile; Cultural Omnivores or Culturally Homeless?
Start Date and Duration
a. Proposed start
01 October 2012
date
b. Duration of the grant
(months)
36
Applicants
Role
Name
Organisation
Principal Investigator
Classification
International in nature?
Please give details
Division or Department
How many hours a
week will the
investigator work
on the project?
Sociology
37.5
Yes
The research will involve a collaborative article written by myself and […], Head of Sociology at […],
Chile. The article will compare qualitative data from this project and data on the Chilean socially
mobile collected by […], and will explore cultural trajectories of mobility in Chile and Britain. The
subsequent article will be targeted at English and Spanish-language journals
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Objectives
List the main objectives of the proposed research [up to 4000 chars]
This project aims to:
• Examine the impact of social mobility (upward or downward) on cultural taste and participation in Britain. Compare
whether mobility affects cultural participation in different ways elsewhere in Europe.
• Explore the potential social benefits associated with social mobility, such as cultural capital and social capital.
• Explore the potential social challenges associated with social mobility, such as dislocation from friends and family,
and a fractured sense of self.
• Assess whether the potential of cultural dislocation ever discourages some from seeking upward mobility.
• Critically evaluate the notion of the 'cultural omnivore', and use the project's findings to interrogate current
interpretations of the concept.
• Analyse secondary data in innovative ways that enhance the intellectual utility of the original data sets
• Use in-depth interviews to gain more detailed insight into how the process of social mobility affects people's cultural
identities.
• Triangulate quantitative with qualitative data to check and strengthen the validity of findings that emerge from each
method.
• Use the innovative analytical tool MCA to visually inspect how the patterning of cultural practice among the mobile
compares with other social groups.
• Connect the project's findings to key sociological debates, such as the contemporary significance of social class, the
openness of British society, and the relationship between agency and structure.
• Inform policy initiatives aimed at increasing mobility, and supporting the socially mobile.
• Produce a series of high-profile articles in top-ranking journals, and write a monograph.
• Communicate the findings to key non-academic stakeholders, such as The Sutton Trust, The Social
• Mobility Foundation, The Joseph Rowntree Foundation and The Equality Trust.
• Pioneer innovative approaches to maximising impact, such as using the project's findings to create a fictional play
with the award-winning Paper Birds Theatre Company.
• Use research visits to UDP and Harvard to disseminate findings to an international academic audience
• Collaborate with Dr Maria Luisa Mendez on a comparative cross-cultural article that will connect the project's
findings to a Spanish-speaking audience.
Summary
Describe the proposed research in simple terms in a way that could be publicised to a general audience [up to 4000 chars]
Improving social mobility is not only a key priority of the recent ESRC research delivery plan but it is also the main goal of the
current Government's social policy. Mobility is seen as a primary indicator of a fair and just society; a society where no
individual is prevented from fulfilling their potential. However, while economic and policy perspectives on social mobility tend
to present it is an unequivocally progressive force, very little research has examined the impact of mobility on individuals
themselves. Mobility implies social movement - a significant, perhaps disorientating, shift in one's social position and social
relationships - yet the implications of this shift have been largely unexplored in Britain. This project aims to fill this gap by
honing in on mobility, and examining how it affects people's cultural identities, lifestyles and practices. Its research questions
will examine how social mobility alters people's tastes and lifestyles, what impact it has on their friendships and family
relationships, and whether perceptions of mobility affect people's career or educational strategies. It also aims to explore how
such changes yield both social benefits and social challenges. For example, mobility may facilitate new relationships, new tastes
and increased social status, but at the same time it can also dislocate people from their cultural roots, adversely affecting their
relationships with family and friends, and producing an identity not entirely comfortable in one's current or original cultural
habitat. Indeed, the prospect of such cultural displacement may act to inhibit some from seeking mobility in the first place. The
research will therefore explore these various cultural dimensions of mobility, as well as examining whether its results vary
according to gender, age and ethnicity.
To best address its research questions, the project will employ a mixed, quantitative and qualitative, methodology. The initial
focus will involve the secondary analysis of two large-scale survey datasets on cultural taste and social participation, the Cultural
Capital and Social Exclusion Project (CCSE) and The BBC Great British Class Survey (GBCS). In each case, the research will
focus on the tastes and participation of survey respondents who have experienced educational and/or occupational mobility,
and compare how their results compare with other social groups previously examined using these data sets. It will also gain a
cross-cultural perspective by comparing the results of the British surveys with data on cultural participation from other
European countries included in the 2006 EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC). The second stage of the
research will involve conducting 50 lifecourse interviews with a stratified sample of socially mobile respondents drawn from the
CCSE national random sample. The aim of this qualitative dimension will be to gain a more in- depth understanding of how
and when people's cultural tastes and social relationships have changed over the course of their lives, and how this has
coincided with their experiences of social mobility.
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This project will therefore make an original contribution to the study of social mobility. By focusing on the cultural dimension
of mobility, it will add a fresh empirical angle that will be useful to those working both within and outside academia. Not only
will it aid our intellectual understanding of Britain's changing class structure, but it will also help inform policy initiatives aimed
at increasing mobility and supporting the already mobile, as well as illuminating some of the cultural barriers that may act to
inhibit social mobility.
Academic Beneficiaries
Describe who will benefit from the research [up to 4000 chars].
There are three main groups of academic beneficiaries for this research:
• Researchers in mobility studies, which itself is an international and interdisciplinary field incorporating sociology,
politics and the health sciences.
• Researchers in cultural sociology and cultural studies
• Researchers in social policy and applied social sciences.
The research will be beneficial to each group. For those working on mobility, the project not only fills a conspicuous gap in the
literature, but it also offers a new cultural perspective from which to investigate mobility. For example, it will enhance
understanding of how mobility affects identities and social relationships, and will help researchers see how cultural forces may
act to discourage upward mobility. In terms of cultural sociology/studies, the research will provide particular insight into the
cultural omnivore thesis, the discipline's increasingly dominant theoretical paradigm. While most researchers presume that
cultural omnivorousness is a consciously adopted lifestyle choice, few have considered the role that mobility plays in
understanding omnivorousness. Lifecourse enquiry into the tastes of the mobile will therefore allow new perspectives to be
developed in this field, helping researchers understand whether increased taste diversity in Britain is more the result of people's
changing cultural trajectories rather than a purposeful democratising strategy. A more culturally-inflected understanding of
mobility will also be useful to those in social policy and applied social science, as a counter-point to economically-led policy
debates and initiatives promoting mobility. Finally, my research visits to UDP and Harvard will also allow for direct international
dissemination to high-profile cultural sociologists in the USA and Chile.
The research will also be useful on a methodological level. Not only will it utilise data sets (on taste and participation) not
associated with the study of mobility, but it will also introduce innovative analytical tools, such as MCA. Rather than
modelling quantitative data according to preconceived theoretical models, these inductive, data-driven techniques allow
patterns in the data to reveal themselves. They also offer the visual presentation of data, which will be useful for
communicating with audiences uncomfortable with the numerical presentation of statistics.
Academic outputs will be channelled through publications in top-ranking journals, appearances at key conferences and,
ultimately, the publication of a monograph. Articles will be targeted at journals spanning multiple subject-areas (such as Cultural
Sociology, Critical Social Policy and Journal of Applied Social Science) and I will also use YECCE's close links with the Centre
for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC) and the international Network for the Study of Cultural Distinctions (SCUD),
to present the research to relevant stakeholders. In addition, I will collaborate with UDP Head of Sociology, Dr Maria Luisa
Mendez, on an article comparing cultural trajectories of mobility in Chile and Britain. The subsequent article will be targeted at
English and Spanish-language journals to maximise impact.
I also understand the value of early dissemination - particularly for those working in policy - and I will therefore use the
proposed York Centre for Social Cohesion, Inequality and Social Mobility's Working Paper Series to secure early publications, as
well as the Centre's extensive mailing list to distribute a project newsletter. The Centre will also act as a staging point for a major
European conference on the cultural dimensions of mobility, which I will organise in June 2015. This will act as an opportunity
to discuss the cross-cultural dimensions of my research with leading European colleagues and also enhance the profile of
project's main theme of culture and mobility through the publication of a special edition of Cultural Sociology.
Staff Duties
Summarise the roles and responsibilities of each post for which funding is sought [up to 2000 characters]
Below is a breakdown of my time:
• October 2012-June 2013: CCSE and GBCS data sets obtained and commencement of secondary analysis using
MCA.
• November 2012: Project website set up and research blog started.
• December 2012-June 2013: Data set for 2006 EU-SILC survey becomes available and analysis
begins.
• March 2013: Attend 3-day workshop 'Using Multiple Correspondence Analysis' at […].
• May-June 2013: Potential interviewees identified, contacted and interviews arranged. Interview schedule finalised.
• July-December 2013: Household interviews conducted and transcribed.
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
October-December 2013: Attend 3-month placement at The Sutton Trust. January-August 2014: Interviews coded,
analysed, and project write-up started.
April-August 2014: Collaboration with […] Theatre Company on 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe play.
June 2014-June 2015: Planning, organisation and staging of major European conference on the cultural dimensions of
mobility in […] in June 2015.
September-October 2014: 6-week research visit to UDP for networking, dissemination and collaboration on a
comparative article.
October 2014-October 2015: Writing up of project as a monograph, submission of a monograph proposal,
dissemination at a series of high-profile conferences and preparation of a series of articles for top-ranking journals.
November-December 2014: Write-up, publication and dissemination of a series of plain English summaries of key
findings, distributed to The Sutton Trust, The Social Mobility Foundation, The Joseph Rowntree Foundation and The
Equality Trust.
January 2015: All policy stakeholders invited to […] for one-day dissemination event and discussion of the project's
findings.
March-October 2015: National and international media targeted to generate publicity, and disseminate the findings to
the public.
May 2015 – 3-week research visit to Harvard University for networking and research dissemination
Impact Summary
Impact Summary (please refer to the help for guidance on what to consider when completing this section) [up to 4000 chars]
There are three main groups of non-academic beneficiaries for this research:
• Policy stakeholders such as The Sutton Trust, The Social Mobility Foundation, The Joseph Rowntree Foundation and
TheEquality Trust.
• Users working in the culture industries, such as the Arts Council, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society and The Paper Birds Theatre Company
• The national and international media
For those working in policy, the project promises to balance existing, economically led research on mobility and offer a
new cultural-inflected perspective. For example, it will enhance understanding of how mobility affects identities and social
relationships, and will help policy actors see how cultural forces may even act to discourage upward mobility. In order to
foster knowledge exchange with the policy arena, I have organised a 3-month work placement at The Sutton Trust (see
letter of support attached) between October and December 2013. As well as presenting my work to the organisation, […]
at The Sutton Trust, has also expressed an interest in working together to co-publish some of the findings. After
completing the placement, I will also feed my research findings back to other policy practitioners via the publication of a
series of plain English summaries of the key findings. I will then invite these stakeholders to a one-day dissemination
seminar in […] in January 2015, to discuss their impression of the project and how they might use the findings in their
work.
For those working in the culture industries, the project will provide important insight into the relationship between social
class and patterns of contemporary cultural taste. For example, The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society have already
expressed an interest in the findings (see letter of support attached), and I will work closely with […], to ensure that
findings relating to patterns of cultural taste and participation can be used by the Fringe to inform their strategy for
audience development and marketing. I will also make use of […]’s existing links with policy teams at the Arts Council
and Department for Culture, Media and Sport to ensure that the research is presented to key contacts at these
organisations. In addition, I will work directly with award-winning playwright […] from theatre company, […], to use the
research to create a play to be performed at the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe (see letter of support attached). This will represent
a highly innovative approach to public engagement, using art to communicate the themes of the research and foster
knowledge exchange. It will also present a novel opportunity for evaluating impact, with post-show discussions and
questionnaires helping to promote public awareness and gauge audience reactions to the research.
Finally, the research will also be of interest to the national and international media, where there is a widespread interest in
the topic of social mobility. Here I can draw on my own skills as a journalist, as well as my personal contacts within the
media, to disseminate findings through press releases and by directly pitching stories to former colleagues and suggesting
myself as the writer. This will ensure that the integrity of the research, and the intended impact, is not compromised in the
process of journalistic translation.
Ethical Information
Has consideration been given to any ethical matters raised by this proposal ?
Yes
Please explain what, if any, ethical issues you believe are relevant to the proposed research project, and which ethical
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approvals have been obtained, or will be sought if the project is funded? If you believe that an ethics review is not
necessary, please explain your view (available: 4000 characters)
This project involves a number of important ethical considerations. The first stage involves looking at socially mobile participants
in three secondary quantitative data sets. The CCSE survey participants originally signed User License Agreements that ensured
their anonymity but explained that the data would be available to other researchers through the UK Data Archive. I have already
obtained a license to re-use the CCSE data from the UK Data Archive. The GBCS survey is not in the public domain, but I have
the permission of Professor Savage (the project consultant) to work on the data in York. Again, the GBCS participants originally
signed User License Agreements that ensured their anonymity but explained that the data would be used by Professor Savage and
his colleagues. Finally, the EU-SILC data is also fully anonymised, and access is governed by the European Statistical System
Committee (ESSC). I will therefore send an 'official access request' to the ESSC in June 2012, and await approval.
The second stage of my research involves carrying out 50 lifecourse interviews with a stratified random sample of socially
mobile respondents drawn from the CCSE national random sample. As the CCSE respondents initially only agreed to be
involved in the original project, it is ethically imperative that one of the original CCSE researchers approaches the
respondents to obtain their consent before I can make contact about organising interviews. According to the UK Data
Archive, this will ensure that there is no breach of the CCSE User License Agreement. Professor Savage has therefore agreed
to write to all socially mobile respondents in January 2013, explaining that this is a study following on from the
'Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion Project' and asking them if they are willing to be contacted via phone about an interview.
This will give them a chance to decline to take part, and allow them to decide whether or not their contact details can be passed
on to me.
At all times, I will follow the code set out by the BSA stating that 'research relationships should be characterised, whenever
possible, by trust and integrity' (BSA 2002 no. 14). When approaching respondents, I will therefore give a clear and concise
summary of my research aims. I will also send a summary of the research findings to all participants in May 2015 after I have
completed writing up. When interviews take place I will discuss the potential archiving of interview testimony with
each participant. I will explain how this process will work, the fact that their testimony will be anonymised, discuss where it will
be stored, and then ask for their written consent to archive their data. I will not archive data without their informed consent.
For some people, stating cultural tastes publicly, or discussing social class, is sensitive and it is essential that interview data is
kept strictly confidential. Interview tapes and notes will be transcribed onto computer and anonymised as quickly as possible to
ensure confidentiality. I will subsequently replace respondents' names with pseudonyms in any subsequent work.
Finally, before beginning the project, I will secure approval from the University of York's Humanities and Social Sciences
Ethics Committee (HSSEC). My research will follow the University's 'Code of Practice and Principles for Good Ethical
Governance'. The application process requires copies of all the accompanying documentation that I plan to use during my
project, including my letter to participants, information sheet for participants, consent form, draft interview schedules, and
information on how my data will be stored to ensure safety and confidentiality. I will then receive feedback from the
committee, and my research proposal will either be approved, changes required and subject to approval, or substantial change
and resubmission required.
Summary of Resources Required for Project
Financial resources
Summary
fund heading Fund heading
Directly
Incurred
Staff
Full economic ESRC
Cost
contribution
0.00
Summary of staff effort requested
% ESRC
contribution
0.00
80
Travel &
Subsistence
37788.00
30230.40
80
Other Costs
Sub-total
7500.00
45288.00
6000.00
36230.40
80
Investigators
84355.20
67484.16
80
Estates Costs
Other Directly
Allocated
18094.00
14475.20
80
Sub-total
Indirect Costs Indirect Costs
102449.20
67115.00
81959.36
53692.00
Exceptions
0.00
0.00
0.00
214852.20
0.00
0.00
0.00
171881.76
Directly
Allocated
Staff
Other Costs
Sub-total
Total
0.00
0.00
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Investigator
Researcher
Technician
Other
Visiting Researcher
Student
Total
Months
21.5
0
0
0
0
0
21.5
80
80
100
100
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Staff
Applicants
Role
Principal
Investigator
Name
Post will
outlast
project
(Y/N)
Y
Contracted
Total number of hours to
working week as a be charged to the grant
% of full time work over the duration of the
grant
100
2970
Average number of
hours per week
Rate of Salary
charged to the
pool/banding Cost estimate
grant
22.5
46864
Total
84355
84355
Travel and Subsistence
Destination and purpose
Research visit to Harvard (3 weeks, inc. travel, accommodation and
Outside UK subsistence)
Total £
3960
Research visit to the University of Santiago in Chile (6 weeks, inc.
Outside UK travel, accommodation and subsistence)
7400
Attendance overseas conferences (1 per annum, inc. travel,
Outside UK accommodation, subsistence and fees)
4425
Within UK
3 months placement at the Sutton Trust in London (inc. travel,
accommodation and subsistence)
4650
Within UK
Attendance UK based conferences (1 per annum, inc. travel,
accommodation, subsistence and fees)
2490
Within UK
Fieldwork - including interviews and cross discipline networking and
dissemination
6000
Within UK
Dissemination work shop in York based on 20 participants (inc. travel
and catering)
2825
Within UK
Attendance training courses (inc. travel, accommodation, subsistence
and fees)
570
Within UK
International Conference held in York (based on travel, accommodation
and catering for 15 invited participants)
Total £
5468
37788
Other Directly Incurred Costs
Description
Production and development project website
Purchase of SPAD software licence ( to run the Multiple Correspondence Analysis)
Production and dissemination of project newsletter
Production and disseminationof research reports to non-academic stakeholders
transcription costs of 50 interviews
Total £
Total
750
750
750
750
4500
7500
Timetable estimates of the number of months after the start of the project to reach the following stages:
Stage
Completion of all preparation and design work
Commencement of fieldwork or material/information/data collection phase
of study
Number of Months
6
Completion of fieldwork or collection phase of study
Commencement of analysis phase of study (substantive phase where
research facilities are involved)
18
Completion of analysis phase of study
Commencement of writing-up of the research
Completion of preparation of any new datasets for archiving
Completion of writing-up
22
22
32
34
9
6
Data Collection
If the research involves data collection While the CCSE includes 44 interviews, this sample is
or acquisition, please indicate how
representative of the national survey sample, and is therefore
existing datasets have been reviewed incompatible with the research questions of this project. My
and state why currently available
intention is to hone in one particular social group, the
datasets are inadequate for this
socially mobile, and therefore it is important that primary
proposed research. If you do not state research, in the form of 50 lifecourse interviews, is carried
to the contrary, it will be assumed that out to provide focused data on this group.
you (as principal applicant) are willing
for your contact details to be shared
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with the affiliated data support
service (Economic and Social Data
Service) working with the Research
Councils.
Will the research proposed in this
application produce new datasets?
Yes
Will this data be:
Quantitative
✔ Qualitative
Please give a brief description of the
datasets.
The data set will include verbatim transcriptions of 50
lifecourse interviews with British socially mobile respondents
It is a requirement to offer data for
archiving. Please include a statement
on data sharing. If you believe that
further data sharing is not possible,
please present your argument here
justifying your case.
If consent is provided, I will offer to deposit my new data to
the ESDS in May 2015 for use in further secondary analysis
Who are likely to be the users
(academic or non-academic) of the
dataset(s)?
Academics in mobility studies, cultural sociology and social
policy and policy actors such as The Sutton Trust and The
Social Mobility Foundation
Please outline costs of preparing
According to the ESDS, there will be no costs involved in
and documenting the data for
archiving this kibd of qualitative data
archiving to the standards required by
the affiliated data support service
(Economic and Social Data Service)
working with the Research Councils.
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The Shifting Cultural Identities and Practices of the Socially Mobile: Cultural
Omnivores or Culturally Homeless?
The analysis of social mobility has long been a central research issue in sociology. However, over the past two
decades the focus has largely been on the structure of mobility rather than its impact on people’s cultural
identities. For instance, we know little about how mobility affects people’s social, familial and intimate
relationships, what impact it has on their cultural tastes and lifestyle, and whether cultural factors ever act as a
barrier to mobility? While mobility is presented as universally beneficial in policy circles, we need to understand
both the benefits and the potential challenges that such a trajectory implies. Understanding this cultural dimension
is not only important for enhancing policy initiatives aimed at increasing mobility, but also for its wider intellectual
contribution to many of sociology’s most salient contemporary debates. It will provide valuable insight, for
instance, into how ‘open’ or ‘closed’ modern societies are (Bauman, 2000; Bertaux and Thompson, 1997), the
contemporary significance of class and stratification in Britain (Savage, 2000; Bottero, 2005), as well as a fresh
empirical angle on the agency-structure debate (Bourdieu, 1984; Giddens; 1991; Archer, 2003). Building on my
earlier work on the socially mobile ([…], 2011a; […], 2011b) and the ambitious research plans of the […] Centre,
this research therefore aims to construct a culturally-inflected understanding of mobility that will balance existing,
economically-led debates. The project will address five key research questions:
1. How does social mobility (upward or downward) affect cultural taste and cultural participation in Britain, and
does this differ in different parts of the country?
2. Does the impact of social mobility on cultural participation differ elsewhere in Europe?
3. Can mobility deliver rewards such as social and cultural capital, and does this vary with gender, ethnicity and
age?
4. Does mobility ever adversely affect one’s sense of self, or their social and familial relationships?
5. Does the prospect of (potential) cultural dislocation ever discourage upward mobility?
Background
Ever since Goldthorpe’s (1980) Nuffield mobility studies, there has been a renewed acceptance that post-war
British society is characterised by relatively high absolute social mobility, particularly upward (Heath, 2000; Breen,
2005; Goldthorpe and Jackson 2007; Erikson and Goldthorpe 2010). A key factor in this process has been
credited to the transformative effect of the education system. Despite Bourdieu and Passeron’s (1990) assertion
that education largely reproduces social privilege, influential work carried out by Halsey et al (1980), Marshall et al
(1997) and more recently Reay (2009) has indicated that the British education system often acts as a vehicle for
upward mobility, with significant numbers of working class children succeeding at school, obtaining a degree and
moving onto professional employment. In recent years, though, while rates of upward mobility have continued to
increase for women, they have begun to decrease among men, leading to considerable concern among politicians
that social mobility is declining (Hills et al, 2010; Payne, 2010). However, as Li and Devine (2011: 9-10) point out,
there has also been a sharp increase in downward mobility among men, meaning anxiety about declining mobility
is largely unfounded. Thus while politicians may be perennially preoccupied with rates of absolute upward
mobility, the recent rises in downward mobility may indicate that there is actually greater social fluidity in Britain
than ever before.
Yet while there might be broad consensus on the existence of mobility, and indeed the role that culture plays in
driving it (Scherger and Savage, 2010), little is known about the impact of mobility on processes of identityformation and cultural consumption. Goldthorpe (1980) posited that the upwardly mobile were predominantly
satisfied with their achievements, and were rarely plagued by social or cultural disorientation. However, his work
was based on data collected in 1972/74 and this has not been systematically updated since.
Relevant data has been collected outside the UK, though. Following an initial suggestion by Peterson and Kern
(1996: 255) in the US, Van Eijk (1999) found that the Dutch socially mobile are the social group most likely to
exhibit ‘cultural omnivorousness’; combining tastes for culture traditionally considered ‘highbrow’ and ‘lowbrow’.
Similarly Lahire (2008: 174) found that French mobility tends to ‘translate into a heterogeneity of cultural
preferences’. Mobile individuals, Lahire noted, are likely to exhibit a range of cultural dispositions that reflect the
more diverse array of ‘socialising agents’ they have come into contact with.
These findings are even more significant when added to debates about cultural privilege. It has been widely argued
that ‘snob’ forms of cultural elitism have given way to more open and eclectic types of omnivorousness which can
be connected to certain ‘social benefits’ (Lizardo, 2006: 801). Bryson (1996), for instance, associates cultural
omnivores with increased social and political tolerance, Warde et al (1999) argue that they may be the new bearers
of ‘cool’, and most significant of all, Bennett et al (2009: 254) suggest that omnivorousness now represents the
‘dominant expression’ of cultural capital. Moreover, according to other studies (Erickson, 1996; Emmison, 2003;
Lizardo, 2006), cultural omnivores are also in a particularly advantageous position because they are able to use
(and convert) their diverse taste into forms of both ‘generalised’ and ‘restricted’ social capital. While their tastes for
highbrow culture may help to foster bonding connections in relatively high-status and exclusive interaction
networks, taste for lowbrow culture acts as a ‘bridging tool’, providing what Di Maggio (1987: 43) calls
‘fodder for least-common denominator talk’, and subsequently aids their ability to make weak- tie social
connections that transcend social class boundaries.
However, although the socially mobile may have been linked to such social ‘advantages’ in the US (Peterson, 1992)
the Netherlands (Van Eijk, 1999) and France (Lahire, 2006), recent work on British cultural consumption (see
Goldthorpe and Chan, 2005; Skelton, 2007) has paid little attention to the mobile. Even Bennett et al’s (2009)
recent and exhaustive mapping of British cultural taste, while identifying an ‘intermediate class’ at least somewhat
populated by the socially mobile (one would presume), went on to ignore mobility in the study’s analysis.
Researchers at […], though, are beginning to change this. […] and […] (2011) have recently drawn upon interviews
with members of the 1958 National Child Development Study to explore what they call the ‘modest stories’ of the
upwardly mobile, who choose to stress their ‘ordinariness’ rather than their success, and are careful not to disavow
their social and cultural roots. Similarly, […] et al (2008) found that although the upwardly mobile may have more
social contacts than other groups, this does not necessarily translate into social capital. They found, for instance,
that the mobile tend to lack the kind of strong ties to high-status persons that those from the service class enjoy.
Building on this, my own research on comedy tastes ([…], 2011a, 2011b) has indicated that the upwardly mobile in
Britain may also experience a number of unique social impediments. Examining the comedy tastes of the upwardly
mobile, I found that, at first glance, these individuals closely resembled the cultural omnivores described in other
countries. Certainly, most combined tastes for critically-acclaimed highbrow comedy as well as less consecrated
lowbrow artists. Yet such eclectic taste rarely yielded ‘rewards’ like social capital. On the contrary, taste diversity
often presented social hurdles, with mobile respondents reporting a sense of being ‘stuck in the middle’ of two
class-inflected taste cultures (Bourdieu, 1984). Thus while the mobile lacked the ‘natural’ confidence to
communicate legitimate tastes with the embodied cultural capital possessed by the upper middle classes, they were
also acutely aware that the lowbrow tastes developed in their youth (which were important for maintaining social
or family relationships) lacked cultural legitimacy and were often considered socially unacceptable. Deploying the
wrong taste in the wrong social context had the ability to disrupt social relationships, creating a sense of uneasiness
and cultural dislocation between both parties. Mobile respondents therefore appeared less culturally omnivorous
and more culturally homeless.
Although only a small study, this last piece of research poses many salient questions about the ontological impact
of social mobility in a traditionally class-dominated society like Britain. While mobility is often presented as the
primary indicator of a fair and just society (see Cabinet Office, 2011: 5), this may mask certain adverse cultural
effects. Yet understanding these impacts, as this project aims to do, is surely crucial for enhancing our
understanding of social mobility. Not only will it aid our intellectual understanding of Britain’s changing class
structure, but it will also inform policy initiatives aimed at increasing mobility and supporting the socially mobile,
as well as illuminating potential cultural barriers to mobility.
Research Design
In order to link the structural features of mobility with an understanding of people’s values, tastes and identities, I
will employ a mixed methodology. The initial focus, between October 2012 and June 2013, will be the secondary
analysis of two national survey datasets that generated highly original data on cultural taste and participation. The
first is the Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion Project (CCSE), which was conducted 2004-2005 and included a
national random sample of 1791. The second is The BBC Great British Class Survey (GBCS), an online survey
conducted in 2011 that yielded an unprecedented sample size of 161,000, and which includes an additional
nationally representative survey of 1026, conducted by GfK (see ‘Data Management Plan’ for access details for the
CCSE and GBCS).
In each case, I will focus on the cultural taste and participation of survey respondents who have experienced
educational and/or occupational mobility. Upward or downward mobility will be calculated by comparing
respondents’ educational qualifications with that of their parents, and by comparing respondents’ occupation with
that of their parents. These measures are included in both data sets. In addition, the CCSE also provides data on
the roles of both parents in relation to a range of child-rearing practices within the home, which will be useful in
assessing the cross-generational transmission of cultural tastes and practices.
It is important to note that the main GBCS sample is highly skewed towards the middle classes, and therefore the
CCSE national random sample will be more useful for comparing the cultural tastes and practices of the socially
mobile with those from [representative] samples of other social groups. However, it is hoped that the two data sets
will complement one another, with the unparalleled size of the GBCS allowing for the disaggregation of a uniquely
large sample of socially mobile respondents. This larger pool can be subjected to more fine-grained analysis,
capturing potential variations in tastes and practices according to gender, ethnicity and location.
In order to answer Research Question 1, quantitative analysis of mobile respondents in the CCSE and GBCS will
focus on patterns of (a) particular kinds and frequencies of cultural participation (b) particular tastes (including
dislikes) and (c) different kinds of cultural knowledge. These areas are explored in the CCSE through questions
addressing art, literature, music, media, food, sport, bodily adornment and in the GBCS through questions on
leisure, musical taste, holidays, media consumption and eating preferences. It is also important to note that, unlike
most surveys on cultural participation, which tend to over-represent established culture (see discussion in Bennett
et al, 2009: 37-39), both the CCSE and GBCS include a representative spread of questions relating to ‘popular’ and
‘legitimate’ culture.
To tap the cross-cultural dimension of RQ2, I will also compare the results of the British surveys with data on
cultural participation included on the 2006 EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), which
included a random sample of 14,634 from all EU member states. Again the socially mobile within this sample will
be identified by comparing the EU-SILC data on respondents’ own education and occupation with that of their
parents.
To analyse my quantitative data, Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) will be used - alongside standard
statistical techniques - to examine the patterning of cultural practice among the mobile in each of the three
surveys. MCA is a particularly powerful tool because it allows for the mapping of cultural practices and social
positions on the same plane – creating a unique visualisation of the ‘space of cultural lifestyles’. It does this
without presupposing causal relationships between variables - in the manner of standard statistical techniques –
and therefore avoids ‘smuggling in assumptions about the social determinants of taste’ (Bennett et al, 2009: 44). In
addition, my project will focus on two innovative and currently under-used features of MCA. First, it will be able
to locate all socially mobile respondents uniquely in n- dimensional space by examining the ‘cloud of individuals’ as
well as the ‘cloud of modalities’ (see ‘Technical Appendix’ for an example). This will not only make it possible to
identify fine- grained sub-clouds of individuals like the ‘upwardly mobile’ and the ‘downwardly mobile’, but will
also allow for exciting data linkages between respondents’ follow-up interviews and their original location in the
CCSE space of cultural lifestyles - allowing me to see how representative each interview is of the sample as a
whole. Second, I will be able to use MCA to control for the sample skew on the GBCS survey. This will involve
using MCA to first construct a cultural map based on the representative GfK survey, and then import into the
analysis socially mobile respondents from the web survey as supplementary cases. This means that the values of
these respondents will be superimposed onto the co-ordinates derived from the nationally representative survey,
and comparisons made between the cultural profiles of the mobile persons included in the original survey and
those in the representative sample.
Finally, as the CCSE and GBCS surveys also include a set of questions on friendship and social networks important measures of social capital - I will use this to answer RQ3. Both the CCSE and GBCS data use versions
of Nan Lin’s (2002) ‘position generator’ question, asking respondents whether they know people from different
occupations. By coding these occupations to the Cambridge Scale of Occupations, it is possible to ascertain both
the mean status score of respondents’ networks, and also their range. It will thus be possible to explore in detail
how these different measures of social capital are related to different mobility profiles.
It should be noted that a major problem of quantitatively examining cultural tastes and practices is that surveys can
only ever offer a ‘static’ snapshot (Silva and Wright, 2008). They cannot, for example, explain when tastes were
established over the lifecourse, a crucial consideration for a project like this which aims to examine how the
process of mobility affects cultural identity. Furthermore, many researchers have commented on the inability of
surveys to explore why individuals hold the tastes they do and what aesthetic criteria they deploy when articulating
their preferences (Bourdieu, 1984; Holt, 1997; Bennett et al, 2009).
Acknowledging the severity of these methodological concerns, the second stage of my research design, conducted
between July 2013 and March 2014, will triangulate through an extensive programme of 50 lifecourse interviews,
conducted with a stratified random sample of mobile respondents drawn from the CCSE national random sample.
There is a striking lack of qualitative studies on British social mobility (Bertaux and Thompson, 1997 is a notable
exception) and this will therefore provide an innovative source of new data. Interviews will be carried out in
participants’ households and will focus on three key areas – what culture respondents consume and their style of
consumption (RQ1), how mobility has altered respondents’ relationships and sense of self (RQ3 and RQ4), and
whether mobility has ever affected educational or occupational decision-making (RQ5). To achieve this, the
interview schedule will explore seven main themes:
1. Background and cultural experiences in childhood
2. Educational trajectory
3. Occupational trajectory
4. Cultural tastes and participation discussed in the survey
5. Lifecourse changes in taste, style of taste and belonging
6. Judgments of other tastes and styles of taste
7. Lifecourse changes in personal relationships.
After each household interview, I will compile ethnographic notes – noting features such as housing decoration,
dress of respondent, non-verbal gestures, and level of rapport with the interviewer. I am aware that personal taste
and social mobility are both potentially sensitive subjects, and every effort will be made to ensure a relaxed and
conversational interview style. The data will then be compiled, coded and analysed using Nvivo (Version 8)
software. Following Charmaz (2006: 47-60) analysis will follow a two-step process – beginning with line-by-line
‘initial codes’ that categorise each element of the interviews, and then following with ‘focused codes’ that
synthesise initial codes and organise them conceptually.
The interview sub-sample will broadly aim to reproduce the dimensions of the main CCSE sample, although it will
be theoretically defined to represent, in particular, a broad distribution of respondents from ethnic minority
backgrounds and different geographical locations. It is also important to note that, as the CCSE respondents
initially only agreed to be involved in the original project, it is ethically imperative that one of the original CCSE
researchers approaches respondents to obtain their consent before I make contact. According to the UK Data
Archive, this will ensure that there is no breach of the CCSE User License Agreement. Professor Savage has
therefore agreed to write to all socially mobile respondents in January 2013, explaining that this is a study
following on from the ‘Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion Project’ and asking them if they are willing to be
contacted via phone about an interview. This will give them a chance to decline to take part, and whether they
wish their contact details to be passed on to me.
Recruiting the project’s interviewees from the original CCSE sample is a deliberate strategy. As MCA can identify
the exact coordinates of each interviewee in the original CCSE ‘space of lifestyles’, this will allow for a rich
dialogue between my methods, with interviews acting as a useful ‘check’ on the validity of survey data. Interviews
will also identify any changes in cultural practice in the time-lag since the survey, or any notable discrepancy in the
views expressed across both methods. Moreover, in terms of taste, survey categories often ‘force’ participants into
stating preferences that they do not necessarily hold, or over-simplifies their taste profiles, and therefore
qualitatively examining respondents’ ‘lived experience’ will help identify such survey ‘errors’ and allow for analysis
of their significance (Silva et al, 2008).
Expected Outputs
Over the course of the scheme, I aim to produce three articles in top-ranking journals and a monograph (to be
delivered in January 2016). The monograph will draw on all the project’s data sources to provide a new, culturally-
inflected understanding of social mobility in contemporary Britain. Articles will be tailored to journals spanning
multiple disciplines and will focus on areas such as the cross-cultural impact of social mobility on cultural
participation, an in-depth qualitative examination of the shifting cultural identities of the socially mobile, and the
methodological implications of using mixed methods to explore social mobility. Results will also be disseminated
to non-academic users through my placement at The Sutton Trust and via a series of plain English summaries of
key findings. I will also invite users to a one-day dissemination seminar at YECCE in April 2014 (see ‘Academic
Beneficiaries’ for more detail).
Mentor and Institution
The mentor for this project is Professor […] (AcSS, FBA). As one of the world’s leading experts on cultural taste,
lifestyle and identity, and having published extensively on the topic of British social mobility, Professor […] is the
ideal mentor for this research project. Moreover, Professor […] was also involved in the design and collection of
both the CCSE and GBCS surveys, giving him unique insight and access into these valuable data resources.
He has extensive experience of working with both quantitative and qualitative data, is one of the leading
proponents of MCA, and has extensive networks with mobility researchers operating throughout Europe.
Professor […] is also the Director of the […] Centre, where this project will be based. The […] is the perfect
staging point for this project, representing a premier international research centre committed to methodologically
rigorous cultural sociology. The centre already includes a number of high-profile researchers, and these colleagues
will act as a supportive network to help guide the project’s, and my own, professional development. Professor […]
has also ensured that I would join the permanent lecturing staff after the termination of this award and play a key
role in the further development of […], and its teaching programme.
Overseas Research Visits
This project will include two research visits. The first is a six week visit to Universidad Diego
Portales (UDP) in September 2014. The aim of the trip will be to disseminate findings, develop links with leading
researchers on cultural taste and social class at UDP, and to collaborate with UDP Head of Sociology, Dr María
Luisa Méndez, on an article comparing cultural trajectories of mobility in Chile and Britain. The subsequent article
would be targeted at English and Spanish-language journals (See letter of support attached). The second trip is a 3week visit to Harvard University in May 2015, hosted by Professor Michele Lamont. The trip will allow me to
strengthen existing links with Professor Lamont and other Cultural Sociologists at Harvard, as well as present my
work at Harvard’s prestigious Culture and Social Analysis Workshop.
Programme of Research Skills Development
The project includes an ambitious plan for research skills development. Primarily, I will utilize the […]’s extensive
‘Researcher Development Programme’. The programme offers over 30 courses, and in particular I will strengthen
my ‘impact’ skills by taking the ‘Research into Policy & Practice’ and ‘Building Impact: Social Sciences’ workshops
in autumn 2012. I will also attend a number of exciting external courses. First, in autumn 2012, I will take the
Research Project Management course run by the Researcher Development Initiative. As this is my first major postdoctoral research project, the course will help me to plan and timetable effectively. In spring 2013, I will then
augment my existing knowledge of MCA by attending an advanced 3-day workshop offered at York. Although I
have used MCA before, this course will advance my understanding of key statistical software such as SPAD, and
will allow me to experiment with the project’s data whilst under the supervision of experts. My data training will
culminate in April 2013 with the two-day ‘Looking After and Managing Your Research Data’ course run by the
UK Data Archive, which will provide invaluable skills for handling, managing and storing the data I will produce.
In addition, I am planning a 3-month voluntary placement between October and December 2013 with The Sutton
Trust (see pathways to impact). As a key component of the project involves producing outputs for non- academic
stakeholders, it is imperative that I learn how to adapt my skills to attract these users.
Pathways to Impact
There are three key pathways for enhancing the impact of this project. Social mobility is central to current policy
debates, with improving mobility ‘the principal goal’ of the current Government’s social policy (Cabinet Office,
2011: 5) and one of the key ‘strategic priorities’ of the new ESRC research delivery plan (ESRC, 2011: 5). In order
to engage directly with this policy arena, I have organised a 3-month work placement at The Sutton Trust (see
letter of support attached) between October and December 2013. This will act as a key opportunity for reciprocal
knowledge exchange. It will not only allow me to present my research and hopefully inform the organisation’s
practical initiatives - aimed at increasing mobility and supporting the mobile - but will also give me the opportunity
to learn from practitioners about the most up-to-date policy debates on mobility. I have spoken extensively with
Dr […], at The Sutton Trust, and he has also expressed an interest in working together to co-publish some of the
findings from my project. This will give me invaluable first-hand experience of writing for a policy audience, as
well as directly enhancing the project’s immediate non-academic impact.
The placement will also enhance the project’s future impact. In particular, it will teach me the best strategies for
presenting research to non-academic stakeholders and present networking opportunities with other key users in
the field, such as The Social Mobility Foundation, The Equality Trust, and The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (who
already have strong links with The University of York). After completing the placement, I will feed my research
back to these policy-makers and practitioners via the publication of a series of plain English summaries of the key
findings. I will also invite these stakeholders to a one-day dissemination seminar at the proposed Centre for Social
Cohesion, Inequality and Social Mobility in April 2014, which will allow for a more dialogic approach to
knowledge exchange. It will also act as an important opportunity to evaluate the impact of the project. By
engaging these stakeholders in direct and frank discussion about the utility of the summaries I distributed, as well
as their overall impression of the project, I will gain useful insight into the strengths and weaknesses of my impact
strategy.
The second pathway to impact is through engagement with the cultural industries. Using my extensive contacts in
this area - developed during eight years as a comedy critic and publisher of arts magazine, Fest - I will disseminate
the research to those working on the front line of British culture. For example, The Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Society have already expressed an interest in the findings (see letter of support attached), and I will work closely
with Head of […], to ensure that findings relating to patterns of cultural taste and participation can be used by the
Fringe to inform their strategy for audience development and marketing. I will also make use of Professor […]’s
existing links with policy teams at the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the Arts Councils and
Department for Culture, Media and Sport to ensure that the research is presented to key contacts at these
organisations.
In addition, award-winning playwright […] from theatre company, […], has agreed to use the research to write a
play to be performed at the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe (see letter of support attached). […] have a strong background
in using social research in their work, most notably in their recent play, Thirsty, which examines the issue of bingedrinking among young women. I have built a strong professional relationship with […], and in February 2012
invited them to perform Thirsty at the […] ‘Innovative Learning Week’ and then take part in an academic postshow discussion about the sociology of intoxication.
The proposed play would be co-written by myself and […], and will use (anonymous) data from my narrative
accounts of social mobility to create a fictionalised drama. I will then use my extensive contacts at the Edinburgh
Fringe to find a high-profile venue to stage the play. This will represent a highly innovative approach to public
engagement, using art to communicate the themes of the research and foster knowledge exchange. It will also
present a novel opportunity for evaluating impact, with post-show discussions and questionnaires helping to
promote public awareness and gauge audience reactions to the research.
The final pathway to impact is through the national and international media. I am passionate about the importance
of producing research that can be used by those working beyond academia and drawing on my own skills as a
journalist - as well as my personal contacts within the media - I will disseminate findings not just through press
releases, but by directly pitching features and news stories to former colleagues and suggesting myself as the writer.
This has worked well with my previous comedy research, allowing me to ensure the integrity of my research is not
compromised in the process of journalistic translation. Indeed, the findings of my PhD research have featured in
The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Mail, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio 4’s
Thinking Allowed and abroad from The Age newspaper in Australia and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s
current affairs radio show, As It Happens.
In a similar vein, I am also a registered author with The Conversation, a high-profile new enterprise that teams
academics and journalists together to find accessible ways to present and package academic research to the general
public. Although The Conversation Media Trust is currently funded by Australian universities, and based in
Australia, its articles attract millions of online views each month and I have spoken at length with the Editor […]
about further developing the profile of this innovative initiative in Britain.
The impact of media coverage is hard to gauge but I will attempt some assessment by analysing public comments
left underneath online versions of newspaper articles. Moreover, as the research will be using the BBC’s GBCS
data, this will afford a number of dissemination opportunities through the BBC. For example, I have strong links
with BBC documentary producers […] and […], who have used my comedy research for a BBC documentary on
social class in 2011, and I will work with them again to explore broadcasting options for this project.
Finally, I will setup a project website that will act as an important hub for media and non-academic users who wish
to know more about the project. The site will include a research blog, background information about the project,
as well as providing free downloads of all plain English summaries of the key findings. It will also act as a means
of evaluating the project’s impact by providing a database of all media and academic articles that cite the project
and/or its publications, and will invite visitors to leave online feedback.
Justification of Resources
Directly Allocated Costs
Principal Investigator’sTime
I request resources to cover 60 percent of my time over a three-year period (£84,356 + FEC). The purpose of this
project is to investigate and disseminate research findings relating to the shifting cultural identities of the socially
mobile, and the […] shall provide additional resources such that 100 percent of my time will be devoted to this
research project. The project will yield academic outputs in the form of publications in a range of top-ranking
journals, a monograph, and plain English research reports that can be disseminated to non-academic
stakeholders.
Directly Incurred Costs
TravelandSubsistence
All estimations are based on using most direct routes at economy class fares, accommodation and subsistence
at current University rates.
Fieldwork
I also require funds for travel and subsistence in order to undertake fieldwork, including 50 interviews in
locations throughout the UK (Years 1 and 2: £5,000) and to give one research seminar per annum at other HEI
and non-HEI institutions (Years 1, 2, and 3, £1000).
VoluntaryPlacement at The Sutton Trust – Funds are requested for accommodation, travel and subsistence
during a 3-month Placement at The Sutton Trust in London (Year 3, £4,650).
OverseasResearchVisits
Funds are required for two overseas research visits. The first is a six week visit to Universidad Diego
Portales, Santiago, Chile (Year 2, £7,400). The second is a three week visit to Harvard University, USA (Year
3, £3,960). The costs include travel, accommodation and subsistence over the duration of both visits.
One-dayDisseminationSeminar
Funds are required to host a one-day dissemination seminar at the […] for policy actors and other nonacademic stakeholders. (Year 2, £2,825). This includes the travel costs of 20 invited policy actors and all
catering for the workshop, such as refreshments and lunch.
Hostingof InternationalConference
I require funds to host a 2-day international conference at the […] exploring the ‘cultural dimensions of
social mobility’ (Year 3, £5,468). The conference will include 6 invited academics – three from the UK and
3 international speakers from overseas. Costs will therefore include national and international travel,
accommodation, and catering for the 6 invited speakers as well as the catering for about 9 invited […] staff
members (other delegates will pay a conference fee).
ConferenceAttendance
Funds are required to attend one UK (e.g. BSA, Years 1, 2 and 3, £2,490) and one Overseas based conference
(e.g. the American Sociological Association, Years 1, 2 and 3, £4,425) per annum. The costs include conference
fees, travel, accommodation, and subsistence.
ResearcherDevelopmentTrainingCourses
Funding is required for an ambitious plan of my own research skills development. First, travel and course fee
costs are required for the two-day ‘Research Project Management’ course run by the Researcher Development
Initiative (Year 1, £220). My data training will culminate in with the two-day ‘Looking After and Managing
Your Research Data’ course run by the UK Data Archive, which will provide invaluable skills for handling,
managing and storing the data I will produce during the project (Year 1, £350). For this, I will require travel,
accommodation, subsistence and the course fee.
OtherDirectlyIncurredCosts
•
•
•
•
The project requires the specialised software, SPAD, to run Multiple Correspondence Analysis and
is essential for analysing the project’s various quantitative data sets. This license costs 250 per year (Years 1, 2 and
3, £750).
I also require funds for the transcription of the 50 interviews (£4,500).
Funds are required for the design, production and development costs of a project website (Year 1, £750), and
production and dissemination of a project newsletter to academic and non-academic stakeholders (£750).
The project also requires funds for the production, printing and dissemination (i.e. postage costs) of research
reports to non-academic stakeholders (£750).
Other Directly Allocated Costs
Resources to cover two hours per week of mentor Professor Mike […]’s time will be provided by the […].
Other Directly incurred Costs
The […] will also provide secretarial support, equipment, as well as the cover of some research training and
development courses.
Anonymised Comments
Cultural Omnivores or Culturally Homeless: Exploring The Cultural Identities and Practices of The
Socially Mobile
Introducer A
This is a good proposal with a clear methodological framework and dissemination plan. One of the strongest
aspects of the proposal is the engagement with academic and non-academic stakeholders. In this it is clear the PI
has skills and relevant experience. The outputs are realistic and yet sufficiently ambitious. The institutional
support (from university and mentor) is very strong and clear, and it needs to be acknowledged that the proposed
mentor is a world class researcher in his own right. There are however some important concerns with the
proposal:
1. The focus of the proposal is on how cultural knowledge and practices shape and are shaped by people's
experiences of mobility. In its own right, this is a reasonable question but my sense is that this is not
academically/intellectually as novel a proposal as the PI suggests. There is for example an established literature on
social mobility effects.
2. The attempt to integrate quantitative and qualitative methods in the proposal is a strength, as is the attempt to
compare across datasets. However it is not clear from the proposal if the 2006 EU-SILC survey contains the kind
of data which might allow for comparisons with the other datasets
3. It is not clear from the proposal, why Chile is necessary and what contribution it might offer to the date. What,
if anything, does it have to bear on the overall argument?
Introducer B
This is a very interesting proposal from a promising researcher who has produced a good body of published
outputs on the basis of a recent PhD addressing comedy taste and cultural capital. The proposed research would
be based in […] with strong mentoring from Professor […] allowing access to data (CCSE and GBCS) and access
to his expertise and support. The University is also offering 40% funding and further funding for the applicant in
the period following this ESRC fellowship. There is also a strong international component and the pathways to
impact are particularly strong (e.g. Sutton Trust) and innovative (Paper Birds).
There is evidence of a potential for developing research leadership. Indeed, most of the reviewers are enthusiastic
and rate the proposal very highly. One reviewer is however very critical identifying weaknesses in summary of
social mobility research, gaps in the literature, questions about the data to be used (particularly the GBCS), the use
of MCA, the dis-connect between the research aims and the cross-national comparison of Chile and Britain.
These are valid criticisms and I think the researcher should address these points before proceeding further.
Reviewer A
This project employs a mixed methods approach to answer five research questions on social mobility and cultural
identities and practices. My comments are as follows.
1 Existing research
The project is motivated as an attempt to "construct a culturally-inflected understanding of mobility that will
balance existing, economically-led debates." But I think the PI's understanding of existing social mobility research
is not quite spot-on. E.g. he correctly notes one of Goldthorpe's results: that absolute mobility rates in Britain are
actually quite high. But he overlooks the other result: that relative mobility chances are very unequal. Indeed, the
debate in recent years between Goldthorpe and Machin and their colleagues is really about relative, not absolute,
mobility rates. The distinction between absolute and relative mobility rates is not clearly brought out in the case
for support. The PI then talks about cultural omnivores etc and refers to Van Eijck and so on. It is true that that
literature is about absolute mobility. But it doesn't really bear on the debate about trend of relative social mobility
in Britain.
One research question of the project is "whether cultural factors ever act as a barrier to mobility?" There is
actually a large literature here (see e.g. the work of Alice Sullivan, Nan Dirk de Graaf, Paul de Graaf, Jason
Kaufman, Paul DiMaggio) which generally report fairly negative or at best mixed evidence. The PI didn't refer to
this literature at all. So it is not clear whether he thinks these results are convincing or not, or in what ways this
project will lead to more convincing evidences.
Another concern of the project "does mobility ever adversely affect one's sense of self, or their social and familial
relationship?" There is again a fairly large literature on social mobility effects (see e.g. Duncan, Sobel). Although
they are admittedly on slightly topics, e.g. fertility, voting pattern, they are clearly relevant.
2 Data
The quantitative part of the project aims to answer q1, q2 and q3. The PI plans to make use of data from the
Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion project (a survey with N=1791) and those from the BBC Great British Class
Survey. The latter has a very large N. But the PI acknowledges that, as an online survey, it is not representative
of British society ("the GBCS sample is highly skewed towards the middle classes"). It is not clear to me how
having the first survey corrects for the unrepresentativeness of the latter. The PI did not mention the Taking Part
survey. But at least in year 1 of that survey, there is info on status origin of respondents, which will support
investigation on the impact of social mobility on cultural consumption and practice. And there are questions of
cultural socialisation in other rounds of the Taking Part survey too (and the N of Taking Part is very large, about
30,000 or so each year, I think).
It is not clear to me (and it is not detailed in the case for support) that the 2006 EU-SILC survey contains data
that would support the cross-national comparison of cultural consumption and identity.
Some of the questions about possible social mobility effect on familial and intimate relationships might be best
addressed using data from BHPS or Understanding Society. There are questions in these surveys about close
friends and about family relationships, and also about well-being (e.g. GHQ, life satisfaction). At the same time, I
am sceptical about the position generator question in CCSE (i.e. whether you happen to know anyone socially
who has any of these jobs?) The problem is that "knowing someone socially" is a very vague specification, and it
is hard to infer from this to social capital.
3 Methods
The analytical method favoured by the PI is MCA. While MCA, like all methods, has its place in researchers'
toolkit, I am not sure it really is that informative. Consider the plot in the technical appendix: we have two big
overlapping data clouds. But I am not quite sure what we are to make of it.
4 Other issues
The cross-national comparative part needs further justification. Why compare Chile and Britain? What makes
these two good contrasting cases?
Reviewer B
Originality; potential contribution to knowledge
The proposed study takes on an extremely interesting and worthwhile topic, namely the cultural implications of
social mobility. As the applicant rightly observes, for several decades now most mobility research has focused on
describing mobility patterns, and very few studies have considered how cultural knowledge and practices shape
and are shaped by people's actual experiences of mobility. These questions seem to me to be very important ones,
and I consider the proposed project to be capable of yielding major insights on these issues. Importantly the
proposal is not a narrowly-focused one, but promises contributions to knowledge in a whole host of areas,
including to the cultural omnivore debate, and to cross-nationally comparative work on the individual- and
societal-level cultural impacts of social mobility.
Research design and methods
The proposed study has a well thought out research design. The quantitative component of the project will make
use of one highly reputable data source (CCSE) and a further, more questionable but nonetheless interesting data
source (GBCS) to map the correspondence between various cultural practices. My only real reservation about the
proposed quantitative analysis is that the applicant intends to use multiple correspondence analysis, which is a
variable-centred approach, whereas he might more profitably use a case-centred approach such as cluster analysis.
(Case-centred approaches, as the term suggests, involve analysing cases as wholes rather than treating the
attributes of cases as though they are 'independent' variables which of course they are not.) The mixed-methods
design of this study is a major strength. The qualitative interviews seem likely to add considerable insight over and
above that generated by the quantitative component of the project. A particularly nice feature is that interviewees
will be drawn from the sample of CCSE survey respondents, enabling quantitative and qualitative data to be
combined.
Value for money
The budget outline represents very good value for money in light of the anticipated academic and other outputs
of the project, not least the international collaborative links that the two budgeted overseas research visits will
help to foster. Value for money is also aided by the fact that the host institution will cover 40% of the salary costs
associated with the project.
Outputs, dissemination and impact
The dissemination plans outlined are exemplary. The applicant proposes to produce 3 articles and a monograph
over three years and judging by his record to date I find it believable that these outputs will materialise. The
applicant has also clearly done a good deal to ensure that the project findings will be put to use outside of
academia, and that they will be reported widely in the media as I am sure they will warrant.
Reviewer C
This application is perfectly placed to enter key debates on social mobility and culture. It is well designed with
strong methodological foundations. The candidate is strong, easily able to fulfil the remit and to produce powerful
public impacts and diverse sociological interventions. He will most definitely be a future research leader as he has
the drive and determination to see his project through. Right from his first degree he has demonstrated a
commitment to his subject. His previous research demonstrates his Depth and breadth. He will definitely offer
value for money over the years to come.
Reviewer D
Overall, I thought the project trod a fascinating line between the academic and practical worlds. The challenge is
somehow to hold together the imaginative and diverse methods of dissemination in such a way that a coherent
message emerges.