This book examines how a working-class habitus interacts with the elite culture of academia in higher education. Drawing on extensive qualitative data and informed by the work of Pierre Bourdieu, the author presents new ways of examining impostor syndrome, alienation and microaggressions: all common to the working-class experience of academia. The book demonstrates that the term 'working-class academic' is not homogenous, and instead illuminates the entanglements of class and academia. Through an examination of such intersections as ethnicity, gender, dis/ability, and place, the author demonstrates the complexity of class and academia in the UK and asks how we can move forward so working-class academics can support both each other and students from all backgrounds.

Recognising diverse groups within society is a vital part of policy research and analysis, yet few texts have drawn together the breadth of experiences of welfare provision from a diverse group of citizens. This book fills this gap, by exploring how diverse citizens’ experience welfare provision. It aims to promote debate about the importance of social divisions in society and to address the gaps in research, in relation to race, ethnicity, disability, gender and LGBTQ. It comes at a crucial time as we emerge out of a decade of austerity, a global pandemic and Brexit, where issues of diversity have been at the forefront of debates and renews the call for analysis within social policy, particularly on issues of diversity in the 21st century context.

This book examines how a working-class habitus interacts with the elite culture of academia in higher education. Drawing on extensive qualitative data and informed by the work of Pierre Bourdieu, the author presents new ways of examining impostor syndrome, alienation and microaggressions: all common to the working-class experience of academia. The book demonstrates that the term 'working-class academic' is not homogenous, and instead illuminates the entanglements of class and academia. Through an examination of such intersections as ethnicity, gender, dis/ability, and place, the author demonstrates the complexity of class and academia in the UK and asks how we can move forward so working-class academics can support both each other and students from all backgrounds.