Living Parallel Lives

Contributing to a wider body of literature which understands the perspectives and experiences of working-class academics and working-class students, Living Parallel Lives is the first of its kind to understand the position of professional services and administrative staff and their class-based experiences of higher education in the UK.

Providing a novel approach to studies of social class in higher education and representing the voices of a group of stakeholders which is not currently accounted for in academic research, Pilgrim-Brown’s unique study contributes to the inclusion and widening participation agenda by illuminating part of the political economy of UK higher education which is currently under-researched. Informed by interviews with professional services staff, this research contributes a much-needed understanding of how university culture is seen, performed and experienced by those working within the institution. The author shows how only through this lens can recommendations be made to improve the inclusivity and equitable participation of higher education organisations. The chapters not only scope the experiences and notion of being a working-class professional services worker in UK universities, but the book also makes robust policy recommendations at a local and national level, in order to overhaul the organisational cultural landscape of UK higher education.

A timely and needed lens into the dynamics of cultural capital within the realm of professional service work in UK higher education, this is ground-breaking reading for sociologists of education, higher education professionals and management scholars interested in professional people in a new context.

Jess Pilgrim-Brown is a sociologist and researcher in education. She is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, UK. She focuses on issues relating to social class, gender and wider social inequalities and has a specific interest in research on research, research culture and professional staff in higher education. Her thesis research ‘Doing the heavy lifting, the experiences of working-class professional services and administrative staff in Russell Group universities’ was the first of its kind in the UK.