Sam Friedman

Sam Friedman is Professor of Sociology at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He is a sociologist of class and inequality, and his research focuses in particular on the cultural dimensions of contemporary class division.

Sam is an experienced speaker and has given keynotes in a diverse array of settings, including The UK Civil Service, The Bank of England, The RSA, The BBC, The FCA, KPMG, Baker McKenzie, Channel 4, Ofcom, Greenpeace, Morgan Stanley and The Edinburgh International Television Festival. He asks and answers powerful questions on social classes, divisions in society, and people’s perspectives on elitism. Outside of academia, Sam was a Commissioner at the UK Government's Social Mobility Commission between 2018-2021 and since 2021 has sat on ITV's Cultural Advisory Council.

He has published widely on social class, social mobility and elites, and is the author of The Class Ceiling: Why it Pays to be Privileged, Comedy and Distinction: The Cultural Currency of a ‘Good’ Sense of Humour, and co-author of Social Class in the 21st Century. His new book (with Professor Aaron Reeves) entitled Born to Rule: The Making and Remaking of the British Elite will be published in September 2024 with Harvard University Press. The book examines the British elite from the Victorian era to today: who gets in, how they get there, what they like and look like, where they go to school, and what politics they perpetuate.