text: What does social class even mean in 2024? Obviously, when we decided to embark on Kick Some Class – a series of articles focusing on working class people in the arts – we had to think about what the distinction between the classes even means.
  It’s a difficult and knotty question, so we called up someone very clever to tell us all about it and help us pick through the prejudices that can get in the way of having this vital conversation. Dr Teresa Crew is a senior lecturer at Bangor University and she has done loads of research into social class throughout her career. She literally wrote the book on class diversity in the academic world. Surely, she’s the best person to ask.
  “Funny enough, the very first thing I've written down is that there isn't really one short answer,” she says when I ask her to define working class. Not a great start, but fortunately there was some great insight to come.
  “Working class tends to refer to individuals who primarily earn a living through manual labour or non-managerial positions. And then you think about people who are middle class, they're often more of the middle management positions,” says Dr Crew. “But the only trouble with that sort of definition is it doesn't take into account the changes that have happened. Little things like, years ago working class people didn't own their own home. And now many do.”
  She adds: “I've always understood that part of [class] is about who you are as a person. I didn't go to university until I was 30 and how can I disregard those previous 30 years just because all of a sudden I've got a batch of qualifications or I'm earning more money? I tend to think that you know if you're working class. And you know if you’re middle class.”
  Dr Crew is keen to banish the belief that working in a traditionally middle class world like academia or journalism means you can no longer call yourself working class. She believes it’s important to have the conversation, however difficult it might be.
  “I totally accept that it's complex to be able to use the phrase working class. But the reason I do is because I think, without doing that, it then puts working class people into these pigeonholes. It kind of suggests that working class people don't do clever jobs and that, in effect, working class people aren’t clever. I can’t help but feel it’s offensive.”
  She is keen in her work to draw a line between socio-economic status (“related to where you are now”) and social class (“more constant, about your background”) – terms that are often mixed up. Dr Crew adds: “The sort of person I always highlight would be someone like Wayne Rooney, for instance. I love my football and I think that, even though he obviously has a lot of money and his own mansion and has been very fortunate there, you would recognise his working class background.”
  Dr Crew says her experience has shown that young people are less aware of social class than ever, despite it being an important part of their career prospects in an era of precarious, short-term work. “Because we've become more aware of other intersections of our identity, I'm not sure that people completely see that class is important,” she says.
  “Class is not talked about in the same way because socio-economic status is talked about and not class. For most people, the only way that we're going to see about society is on the TV, is through the newspapers, is if we read magazines. If [working class] voices aren't actually represented, most people won't even think class is a thing. They'll just think that there's poor people, and then there's everybody else.”
  Dr Crew says the arts are sadly still home to clichéd depictions of working class people as criminals, whether it’s in shows like Shameless or on evening soap operas packed with murder, violence, affairs, and stereotype-driven characters.
  She says: “We just don't really see much diversity in expression [or] diversity in what they do. It's either kind of a ‘tart with a heart’, the mum who's put-upon, and somebody who's poor. That's all I can really think of. But I think the diversity in working class people is huge. I think there's a lot of diversity there, and we just don't see it at all.”
  Frequently, the few working class characters who do appear are played by middle class actors. They are often very good, but lack the lived experience that could make those roles really work. In an arts world packed with unpaid internships and heavily focused on London and other big cities, working class people just can’t find the opportunities.
  Dr Crew says: “I think what's so sad is that misunderstanding that you can think that working class people aren't as talented. And this is why I really hold on to this idea that working class people can be clever too. Middle class people who are talented, they've got there just because they knew people or they got there because they can do that internship. If you can't do those two things, the opportunities for you are so much less.”
  The picture is bleak, especially in the arts. But there’s hopefully plenty of room to be optimistic about the future.
  Following the general election in July, just 23% of MPs were private school pupils, according to Sutton Trust research. That’s a record low figure. Only eight percent of Keir Starmer’s first Cabinet was privately educated. Dr Crew is cautiously optimistic about this, despite expressing concerns about the new prime minister’s approach to working class concerns.
  She adds: “The positive person in me is thinking: ‘wait a minute, they have come from working class backgrounds, so they do know what it means to be working class'. I'm hoping they still understand some of the difficulties and the inequalities that working class people have. So I'm holding on to that. As much as there are so many things that are pushing me away from that thought, I think it will make a difference.”
  When it comes to making that difference, the figures we’ve spoken to as part of Kick Some Class are the experts. So stay tuned for more and find out how you can get involved.
  Dr Crew's book "The Intersections of a Working-Class Academic Identity" is available to read for free online.