Debt and Wealth Inequality
Why do financial inequalities prove so hard to shift? Laurie Taylor looks at Ryan Davey's long-term study on a southern English housing estate and Sarah Kerr's work on wealth.
What does an 18-month study of residents on a housing estate in southern England tell us about living with debt? Laurie Taylor talks to Ryan Davey from the University of Cardiff about his new book The Personal Life of Debt - Coercian, Subjectivity and Inequality in Britain, which tries to understand how debt affects people emotionally as well as economically.
Laurie is also joined by Sarah Kerr (LSE International Inequalities Institute), whose book, Wealth, Poverty and Enduring Inequality - Let’s Talk Wealtherty, investigates the stubborn persistence of inequality in the UK. Kerr argues that the gap between top and bottom earners has become entrenched and normalised across generations.
Producer: Natalia Fernandez
On radio
Guests and further reading
Series 1 of Dr Sarah Kerr’s podcast Antisocial Economics, 'Talking about wealth.' ( with the LSE)
- Ryan Davey – Lecturer at the School of Social Sciences at the University of Cardiff“The Personal Life of Debt: Coercion, Subjectivity and Inequality in Britain” by Ryan Davey (Bristol University Press, 2025)
Broadcasts
- Tue 10 Mar 202615:30BBC Radio 4
- Sun 15 Mar 202606:05BBC Radio 4
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BBC Thinking Allowed is produced in partnership with The Open University
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