How much does the way you speak define your social class? What about your parents’ jobs or your source of income, schooling and housing?

The journalist and author Danny Lavelle has long been fascinated by the concept of class because of the way his life has unfolded. Moving between foster care, university, sleeping rough and becoming an Orwell prize-winning writer has led him to question how much the notion of class can help us understand life in 21st-century Britain.

Lavelle tells Helen Pidd about his experiences, while unpacking ideas around social signifiers, demographics and relationships to labour. They discuss how the idea of ‘working-class interests’ sits with the notion of individualism, and explore whether a person’s quality of life or lifestyle is more important than their class.

Lavelle, the author of Down and Out: Surviving the Homelessness Crisis, talks about life on the streets and the impact of UK government cuts in a previous episode of Today in Focus.

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