Main content

Elite jobs, Hairdresser craft

New research on how society works, presented by Laurie Taylor. Elite Jobs: Laurie explores the way top companies in the US and UK choose employees. Plus hairdressing as a craft.

How elite students get elite jobs. Lauren Rivera, Associate Professor of Management and Organisation at Northwestern University's Kellog School of Management, discusses her study into the hiring practices of top investment banks, consultancies and law firms. Do America's elite keep the top jobs for people just like themselves? Louise Ashley, Lecturer in Management Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London, adds a British perspective.

Also, hairdressing as craft. Dr Helen Holmes, Hallsworth Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, argues that the craft of such service work is obscured by the intangibility of the product, as well as the fact that it is a female dominated profession.

Producer: Jayne Egerton.

Available now

28 minutes

RELATED LINKS

Helen Holmes at the University of Manchester
Helen Holmes 'Make Do and Mend' Project at the University of Manchester 
Lauren Rivera at the Northwestern Kellogg School of Management 
Louise Ashley at Royal Holloway, University of London


READING LIST:

Lauren A. Rivera, Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs (Princeton University Press, 2015)

The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission report: A qualitative evaluation of non-educational barriers to the elite professions (June 2015)

Broadcasts

  • Wed 18 Nov 201516:00
  • Mon 23 Nov 201500:15

Explore further with The Open University

Explore further with The Open University

BBC Thinking Allowed is produced in partnership with The Open University

Download this programme

Download this programme

Subscribe to this programme or download individual episodes.

Podcast