Insecure Housing

This qualitative study investigates subjective experiences of social mobility amongst parents whose children attend the same London state primary school. This thesis contests both the Conservative political discourse of social mobility in which individuals are cast as responsible for their own life trajectories, and the academic discourse of individualization theory that proposes reflexive selves shaping their own futures, disembedded from class groups. In contrast, this thesis demonstrates how class processes significantly impact on social mobility experiences. Moreover, whilst the individualist model denies the role of class structures, it in fact constructs class identities by attaching stigma and status to individuals held responsible for their own life chances. This narrative is implicated in social and economic processes of dominance and inequality as it works to justify the current welfare cuts. However, by attending to participants’ experiences and using a class analysis it is possible to reframe social mobility within an equality agenda based on the redistribution of resources. In conclusion this study expands the understanding of how class impacts on social mobility experiences, explicitly addresses the individualist discourse of social mobility, and suggests an alternative more equitable model of plural social mobilities.