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Social class is a major determining factor of people's life chances. Much sociology-based research shows that socio-economic position is still one of the best predictors of who will achieve success, prosperity and social status and, in particular, who will enjoy the highest levels of educational outcomes. Survey data and qualitative studies alike confirm that many people continue to see class as a feature of everyday life, in ways that are connected with their understanding of learning and its possibilities. However, despite its continued significance in people's lives, class has virtually disappeared from modern adult learning research. This paper concludes that in an era when governments across Europe are setting about the dismantling of social support and collective protection produced by social democracy and trade unionism, class analysis presents an important means of understanding change and changing understanding. The existence of persistent social class inequalities in access is a repeated theme of research into higher education (HE) participation. Moreover, socioeconomic inequalities persist in spite of the considerable enlargement of higher education systems that has taken place in many countries since the 1950s (Field, 2003; Alon, 2009; Boliver, 2011; Reay 2012). Moreover, survey data and qualitative accounts confirm that many people continue to see class as an everyday aspect of their lives, in ways that are connected with their understanding of learning and its possibilities. This paper looks at the ways in which experiences and constraints of social class were experienced and 'storied' by a group of non-traditional students in higher education. It starts out with reflections on the current status -- or rather absence -- of class as a key category of critical analysis in adult learning. We then examine briefly the question of class in the context of mass higher education. While much has changed in the social composition of the undergraduate population as a consequence of expansion, taken as a whole there seems to have been relatively little change in undergraduates' socio-economic status. While the overall number of students from broadly working class backgrounds has grown, their relative share of the undergraduate population has not greatly altered (Boliver, 2011). In England, it seems that the proportion of students from poorer families declined during the expansion period of the mid- to late-1990s and recovered to its original position during the early years of the current century (Chowdry et al., 2013). In Scotland, Ianelli concludes that similar fluctuations mean that 'overall the relation between social class of origin and educational attainment has not significantly changed over time' (Ianelli, 2011: 257). What does this mean for the experiences of students from working class backgrounds? We explore this question through a discussion of RANLHE interviews in Scottish higher education. We interviewed a sample of 83 students from three HEIs -- one a highly selective institution, one a former central institution (roughly akin to a polytechnic) and one with a mixed mission emphasising both teaching and research. We recruited students through direct email contacts (both targeted and general), appeals in newsletters, intermediaries such as course leaders, and -- once we had started -- by snowballing; some also approached us, having heard about the project by word of mouth. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim, with hesitations and repetitions included. We read and re-read the transcripts, which included responses to a standard question on class. Posed late on in the first or early in the second interview, the interviewer asked 'How you would describe your background in terms of class?' and the student's reply was then followed up. The interviewer did not provide a definition of class, though the follow-up discussion could explore definitional issues if the interviewee raised them (hardly anyone did, at least not explicitly). Responses during this initial discussion of class gave us a baseline for a preliminary thematic analysis which, in turn, provided a springboard for undertaking an iterative thematic and contextual examination of the ways in which different people spoke about class or -- in some cases -- deflected a discussion of class. We distinguished between how people spoke about membership of a particular class and how they talked about class as a phenomenon. The students in our sample spoke about class in relation to their own educational disadvantage and/or experiences/perceptions of HE. Often they discussed class obliquely, or in ways that can be understood through socio-cultural perspectives. One arts student, for example, talked of relating the circumstances of Tracey Emin's childhood (material disadvantage, abuse) to the context in which she grew up and being completely alienated during a class discussion by what she perceived as classist and misogynistic contempt shown towards Emin by fellow students. In addition, class affected student experiences in more material ways, both for mature students who had worked themselves and for young students who came from working-class families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people who have spent all or part of their childhoods in public care are at particular risk of social exclusion as adults and yet the pathway out of exclusion identified by policy-makers at both European and national levels, namely, education, is very difficult to access. Using data from a five-country study of the post-compulsory educational pathways of young people in public care, this paper examines the rates of participation of young people in further and higher education and considers what might account for the gap, looking at two factors: the impact of background social class on educational support and the educational intentions and practices of the care system. The paper concludes by considering the policy context and some possible tensions between policy aims and young people’s contexts and experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper offers a socio-literary investigation of the East African Asian diasporic experience. To this end, it closely examines selected texts that offer insights into the complicated socio-cultural relationships at the interstices of the colonial histories of the Indian subcontinent, Africa and Europe. It also looks at how gendered participation is articulated from within the larger body of a collective history. Finally, the paper reviews steps taken by contemporary Asian-Africans to take stock of their shared past, as a part of larger political project for the recognition of a hitherto minoritised group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the notable, but forgotten, history of the Royal Isle of Wight Golf Club (RIWGC), founded in 1882, is used to examine the cultural and social shifts that enabled the development of the sport's popularity across late Victorian and Edwardian society in Britain. The club can justifiably be described as notable because for a brief period this small island club was at the centre of developments which helped shape golf during this era and framed its development in the twentieth century. Two archetypally entrepreneurial Victorian gentlemen, Captain Jack Eaton and Charles John Jacobs, were central to the club's success and their endeavours underpinned the club's illustrious status. This paper examines newspaper records, periodicals and local archives to explain how the RIWGC originated and then prospered in tandem with the development of the Isle of Wight as an upmarket holiday destination. Moreover the article shows how the club provided access for both sexes of the English upper middle class to a sport and an environment that delivered the cultural benefits and the social kudos which could be derived from association with a golf club, and particularly one that was one of a select group of ‘Royal’ golf clubs. However, research also demonstrates that the club provided an environment where enterprising and talented men from less privileged backgrounds could seize the opportunity to become famous on the national and even the international stage. Finally it will demonstrate that the RIWGC had a significant role in codifying the rules of golf in the 1880s when the R&A appeared hesitant to take the lead. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper seeks to understand the way in which social capital resources are incorporated, appropriated and distributed by different social classes in Europe. Its main goal is to produce a conceptual framework by linking the concepts of social capital with the different theoretical assessments made by the sociology of social classes. We use multivariate analysis to work a set of quantitative indicators from the European Social Survey 2008 in order to assess the relationship between these concepts. Our methodological approach combines transnational levels, i.e., it is not an international comparison between European countries but an analysis of individual people and their belonging to social classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussions of high-speed rail in the United States generally involve relatively straightforward matters of urban policy, civil engineering, economics and raw politics. High-speed rail is touted as an economic driver, a paragon of sustainability and an arena of competition with economic rivals in Europe and Asia. But a critical look at the discourse surrounding high-speed rail reveals the deep contradictions that have managed to stymie numerous initiatives to build high-speed rail lines while simultaneously keeping the dream alive in the imaginings of generations of advocates. This paper looks at plans for high-speed rail in the United States as a complex of ideas, connecting the nascent efforts to the larger American story. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article demonstrates how food contributed to the Europeanisation of British culture between 1960 and 1975, the period leading up to the 1975 Referendum on membership of the European Community. The analysis identifies the meanings and values associated with Europe in cooking columns in two British broadsheet newspapers, TheTimes and the Observer, and examines how people were encouraged to make identifications with Europe. However, the article demonstrates how the meanings associated with Europe were not monolithic and were inflected by class and gender. In particular, continental culinary practices were associated with the tastes and dispositions of emergent new middle-class formations. More generally, the analysis demonstrates how these representations of European food offered middle-class people ways to experiment with feeling European in their everyday lives. In a Brexit context in which much research has asked why British people rejected Europe, the article seeks to contribute to a parallel history of how so many other British people came to identify as European through engagements with popular culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on social mobility typically acknowledges the relevance of gender. However, gender-based differences still lack extensive description and explanation. This article starts by reviewing a number of influential contributions on social mobility, educational systems and employment change, as well as important critiques raised in feminist scholarship with regard to these topics of enquiry. We argue that class analysis should not only document asymmetry between men and women in greater detail, but also incorporate it as a piece of explanatory value in the understanding of social mobility at large. This is attempted by examining the data of the European Social Survey covering 22 countries. Drawing on this large-scale data set, we will demonstrate that the transformation of employment structures favours particular forms of upward mobility, which coexist with the resilience of gender inequality in accessing affluent classes. The impact of gender on the nexus between social background, educational attainment and class position is far from uniform in Europe, with significant variation across classes, countries and fields of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the changing nature of Birmingham's Jewish com munity over a hundred-year period. By focusing on the ways in which Jews were portrayed by non-Jews and how Jews saw themselves, it attempts to illuminate the early history of the Jewish community at the end of the eighteenth century, including the synagogue as a focus of meaning; identity and organisation; how Jews and non-Jews related to one another; Jewish collective action to defend and promote their interests; the importance of funeral rituals and burial; rich and poor Jews; and Jewish women. Jewish experiences and representations not only throw light on the history of AngloJewry, but illuminate the attitudes, fears and prejudices of Birmingham's British society and ways in which others are portrayed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]