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Gossip Girl centers around a working class family who move to an upper class neighbourhood, there are clear elements of the clash of economic/cultural/social capital that Bourdieu discusses.

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Wealth, Class & Privilege - Gossip Girl Trailer 2009

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This is one the trailers that I submitted for the show Gossip Girl, in the CW/Promax 'Making the Cut' competition in 2009. The footage was provided by the CW, and the music is by Fight Like Apes. I was awarded first place in the competition and this trailer was one of the finalists.

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Daily Telegraph - Working class children must learn to be middle class to get on in life, government advisor says

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Daily Telegraph - Working class children must learn to be middle class to get on in life, government advisor says

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Linking to the previous post on Educating Yorkshire, this news article highlights the middle class values and traits that are recognised as superior in the education system.

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Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, has said that state schools must set their standards "so-high" that they become indistinguishable from the best fee paying schools.

However, Mr Brandt said that middle-class politicians are placing too much focus on education, and often fail to realise the need to make poorer children feel "comfortable" in middle class settings.

He said: "It seems likely that worries about "not fitting in" will be one reason why highly able children from less well-off backgrounds are less likely to apply to the most selective universities.

"It probably contributes to a lack of confidence amongst those who are upwardly mobile as they struggle to adapt to their new social environment with detrimental impact on their ability to reach their potential.

"And the lack of effective networks and advice to help navigate this new alien "middle class world" probably make it more difficult to translate high attainment into success in the professional jobs market."

Mr Brant suggested that visiting different places, watching plays and having varied hobbies can help give working class children "shared cultural experiences" with those from middle-class backgrounds.

He said that young people from working class backgrounds have less "nuance and casualness" in their relationships with other people. They also wear different clothes, eat different food and visit different restaurants.

He said that these factors should not be ignored because of the government's focus on GCSE results and educational attainment.

"One helpful thing would be more awareness of this as a potential issue - it can often be unappreciated by policy makers who mostly come from middle-class professional backgrounds.

"This often means that debate can all too easily assume that if educational inequalities can be reduced and aspirations of young people from working-class backgrounds raised then that alone will be enough to tackle the problem."

Mr Brant who was raised in a £150,000 semi-detached house in Newport Pagnell, Milton Keynes went to Aylesbury Grammar School and then on to Cambridge University has worked in as a senior policy advisor for Nick Clegg and held similar policy roles at the Communities Department.

He also served in the Prime Minister's strategy unit under Gordon Brown at the cabinet office that provided policy advice on key government policy priorities.

He now works at the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission which is chaired by Alan Milburn, the former Labour Health Secretary. The body acts as an official adviser to the Coalition.

Mr Brant said: "Tackling this issue is - of course - difficult and complicated and it is far from clear what an effective response to them would be.

"One helpful thing would be more awareness of this as a potential issue - it can often be unappreciated by policy makers who mostly come from middle-class professional backgrounds.

"This often means that debate can all too easily assume that if educational inequalities can be reduced and aspirations of young people from working-class backgrounds raised then that alone will be enough to tackle the problem.

"Another helpful thing would be developing a better understanding of what is necessary to help tackle these barriers."

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Working class children must learn to be middle class to get on in life, government advisor says

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Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, has said that state schools must set their standards "so-high" that they become indistinguishable from the best fee paying schools. However, Mr Brandt said that middle-class politicians are placing too much focus on education, and often fail to realise the need to make poorer children feel "comfortable" in middle class settings.

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Educating Yorkshire depicts predominantly working class life in a Northern public school and gives insight into how the education system inherently conflicts with working class values.

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Owen Jones argues with Channel 4's editor over Benefit's Street

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Owen Jones argues with Channel 4's editor over Benefit's Street

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Owen Jones calls Channel 4's Benefit's Street "a medieval stocks updated for a modern format"; reiterating the point made in his book 'Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class' that we discussed in Week 4's seminar.

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Is Channel 4's Benefits Street 'poverty porn'? - Newsnight

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Channel 4 Head of Factual Programmes Ralph Lee debates the merits of the controversial documentary series 'Benefits Street' with 'Chavs' author Owen Jones and Spectator editor Fraser Nelson

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Channel 4's 'Benefits Street' sparks political debate

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Channel 4's 'Benefits Street' sparks political debate

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Class, a previously unexplored/disregarded form of social stratification, has been politically reignited by a Channel 4 documentary showing the life of the "ghettoised" poor and unemployed. It has suddenly brought the issue of the 'chav' benefit culture (which has existed as a stereotype for many years) into the limelight; initiating discussion in the Houses of Parliament and also the public sphere.

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The shock felt by viewers of the TV show Benefits Street demonstrates that people on welfare are "ghettoised", Iain Duncan Smith has said.

The middle classes were still "largely unaware of the true nature of life" in poor communities, said the work and pensions secretary.

And this showed the need to get those on benefits back into jobs.

The Channel 4 documentary series shows life in a street where most residents are out of work.

It has sharply divided opinion between those who think it demonises the poor and those who see it as an indictment of the welfare state.

Channel 4 has resisted calls to axe the series, filmed in a street in Birmingham, amid claims from some commentators and residents that it presents a biased portrayal of life on the breadline.

'Out of sight'

Mr Duncan Smith began formulating the government's welfare reforms - focusing on the need to make work pay and break the culture of "benefit dependency" - when the Conservatives were in opposition.

This is no time for self-congratulatory speeches from Iain Duncan Smith
Rachel Reeves, Shadow work and pensions secretrary

In a speech to mark the 10th anniversary of the think tank he founded, the Centre for Social Justice, he said: "With income inequality under Labour the worst for a generation, whilst the middle class majority were aware of the problems in poor communities, they remained largely unaware of the true nature of life on some of our estates.

"For too long we let these problems be ghettoised as though they were a different country. Even now, for the most part they remain out of sight - meaning people are shocked if and when they are confronted with the reality."

Asked on BBC Radio 4's World at One whether this was a reference to Benefits Street, Mr Duncan Smith said it was more of a comment on "the surprise that people had that it was going on" which he said demonstrated the need to change the lives of those on benefits.

'Mission'

Speaking after the latest figures showed a fall in unemployment and an increase in the number of people in work to more than 30 million, Mr Duncan Smith argued that his shake-up of the benefits system were helping to get more people into jobs.

He added: "Our mission here should be about renewal, about getting people who have been locked away in the benefits system away from life and make them independent."

In his speech, he said the coalition government had managed to "reframe the argument - challenging a narrative beloved of the left, which focuses so exclusively on how much is being spent on welfare that it risks overlooking the real question ... that it is not about how much goes into the benefit system, but what difference it makes to people at the other end".

But, for Labour, shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves said: "This is no time for self-congratulatory speeches from Iain Duncan Smith. His time would be better spent getting a grip of his lamentable policies and the hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money he is needlessly wasting."

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "Iain Duncan Smith's claim to have made people feel more secure through his cuts to the welfare safety net is ridiculous."

She added: "The truth is that welfare fraud has just gone up, while millions of hard-working families have suffered from tax credit cuts and the child benefit freeze, and a whole new generation now fear future cuts to help for young people."

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The shock felt by viewers of the TV show Benefits Street demonstrates that people on welfare are "ghettoised", Iain Duncan Smith has said. The middle classes were still "largely unaware of the true nature of life" in poor communities, said the work and pensions secretary.

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Comedian Russell Kane discusses working class mobility and the UK education system

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Comedian Russell Kane discusses working class mobility and the UK education system

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Russell Kane, a British comedian from working class roots, tells BBC One's 'This Week' of the inequalities working class children still face in society, and emphasises the importance of the education system in creating equal opportunities and allowing for social mobility. Though this may be true, as we discussed in Week 1's lecture there are still advantages that middle/upper class children have in terms of social/cultural capital which make educational success much easier for them.

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'Cards stacked against working class kids'

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Comedian Russell Kane says the 'cards are stacked against working class kids', as he looks at aspiration and social mobility.