Daniel Laurison
Philadelphia, Swarthmore College
Author of Producing Politics, Beacon Press
also: bsky.app/profile/daniellaurison.bsky.social
Sociologist.
Carnegie Fellow.
Trans, parent.
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Articles by Daniel Laurison
Episode 5: What's a political poll got to do with it?
This episode, we take a look at what political polling can tell us about democratic participation, public policy, and political priorities.
Amid Trump’s attacks on higher ed, professors need to keep standing up for our democracy
Our democracy and our institutions are under attack, but educators in higher education have been fighting back — and we must continue. As scholars, researchers, and people who care about our students and our democracy, it is our duty to speak for diversity and pluralism, scholarship and learning, academic freedom, and democracy itself.
“It’s like a disconnection” - political skepticism among poor and working-class black and Latine people
ABSTRACT In this paper, we put existing empirical research on race, class, and political participation in conversation with preliminary voting data from November 2024 and in-depth interviews with 109 Black and 26 Latine poor and working-class Pennsylvanians.
Higher Turnout, Greater Inequality? A Precinct-Level Analysis of Income Inequality in U.S. Presidential Voting, 2016 to 2020
Do resources and economic context shape patterns of voting? Most research on place, income, and voting focuses on who people vote for (i.e., Democrats or Republicans) (Hersh and Nall 2016; Ogorzalek, Piston, and Puig 2020), but little research interrogates the link between geography, income, and the fundamental basis of our democracy: who votes in the first place.
Behind the scenes, Democrats’ campaigns don’t look like their voters Original
President Joe Biden won the 2020 Democratic nomination through the Black primary voters in South Carolina and carried the general election in November because of the strength of Black women voters. Yet, his top campaign staff was almost entirely white. In fact, most political operatives are whiter, richer and more insulated from the struggles of everyday life than average people.
How the People Behind the Electoral Scenes Define and Shape American Democracy
Daniel Laurison on the Vital Yet Overlooked Role of Campaign Operatives I got involved with Obama’s 2008 campaign primarily because I knew the outcome was so important, but I have come to believe that even beyond who gets elected, the activities, culture, and organization of campaigns are essential aspects of American democracy. Campaigns should matter to all of us.
Producing Politics
The first book to uncover the hidden and powerful role campaign professionals play in shaping American democracy by delving into the exclusive world of politicos through off-the-record interviews We may think we know our politicians, but we know very little about the people who create them. Producing Politics will change the way we think about our country’s political candidates, the campaigns that bolster them, and the people who craft them.
Voting Intersections: Race, Class, and Participation in Presidential Elections in the United States 2008–2016 - Daniel Laurison, Hana Brown, Ankit Rastogi, 2021
Alexander, Michelle . 2012. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New Press. Google Scholar Anderson, Carol . 2018. One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy. 1st ed. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. Google Scholar Andrews, Kenneth T. 2004. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: The Mississippi Civil Rights Movement and Its Legacy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar | Crossref Ansolabehere, Stephen D., Hersh, Eitan. 2012.
Voting Intersections: Race, Class, and Participation in Presidential Elections in the United States 2008–2016 - Daniel Laurison, Hana Brown, Ankit Rastogi, 2021
Alexander, Michelle . 2012. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New Press. Google Scholar Anderson, Carol . 2018. One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy. 1st ed. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. Google Scholar Andrews, Kenneth T. 2004. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: The Mississippi Civil Rights Movement and Its Legacy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar | Crossref Ansolabehere, Stephen D., Hersh, Eitan. 2012.
Essential reading 2020
It goes without saying that 2020 has been a difficult year and its effects will be far reaching. From racism and white privilege, to the impact of COVID-19, and issues around social inequality and injustice, our books offer new ideas and ways to understand social issues and offer solutions. All of the titles below are available with 50% off from the 3-10 December making excellent end of year reading as we look forward with hope into 2021.
Cultural Capital: Arts Graduates, Spatial Inequality, and London’s Impact on Cultural Labor Markets
Introduction The figure of the artist has a strong hold on the urban imagination. Whether starving in garrets, kick-starting gentrification or inventing the next trend, movement or scene, the artist is invested with huge symbolic agency when it comes to influencing the image of cities (Hall, 1998).
What’s fair about that?
Social mobility has something to do with society and something to do with movement. It refers to changes of position in social – rather than, say, geographical – space. Intergenerational social mobility concerns changes between parents and children. After that, things get controversial. Most sociologists would agree that the issue is movement within, rather than movement of, society. Suppose everybody’s real income doubles: everyone is better off, ‘society’ has moved forwards.
The Class Ceiling by Sam Friedman and Daniel Laurison
LoveReading View on The Class Ceiling This lucid, rigorous, readable analysis of the employment experiences of 175 individuals who work in prestigious professions (such as TV, architecture and acting) reveals beyond doubt that Britain is far from a meritocracy.
The Class Ceiling
Why it Pays to be Privileged Sam Friedman and Daniel Laurison Sam Friedman and Daniel Laurison 256 pages | 5 x 7 3/4 | © 2018 Paper $18.00 ISBN: 9781447336105 Will Publish January 2020 For sale in North and South America only Cloth $34.95 ISBN: 9781447336068 Published January 2019 For sale in North and South America only Politicians continually tell us that anyone can get ahead. But is that really true?
‘Like Skydiving without a Parachute’: How Class Origin Shapes Occupational Trajectories in British Acting
Introduction ‘You need to be white, you need to be male, and you need to be middle class.’ These are the key attributes, according to actor Christopher Eccleston, that one needs to secure the top roles in contemporary British theatre (Denham, 2015). Provocative, perhaps, but Eccleston is only the latest in a long line of British actors to express concern about inequalities within the acting profession. Most have focused on the problems faced by those from working-class backgrounds.
Sally Rooney, Marie Kondo, Donald Trump: Books Briefing
Michele Tantussi / Getty Capitalism, the German sociologist Jens Beckert argues, is based on fantasy: People (and institutions) spend, save, and earn money in hopes of achieving an imagined life. But the future of capitalism and the financial market—and the ability to achieve that fantasy—is shrouded in uncertainty. So how does one understand it? Through literature, as Beckert suggests.
The class ceiling: Why it pays to be privileged
Sam Friedman & Daniel Laurison Hardback Not in stock at the moment, but more on the way Quantity The class ceiling: Why it pays to be privileged is available to buy in increments of 1 Book description Politicians continually tell us that anyone can get ahead. But is that really true? This important book takes readers behind the closed doors of elite employers to reveal how class affects who gets to the top.
By Sam Friedman and Daniel Laurison
Politicians continually tell us that anyone can get ahead. But is that really true? This important, best-selling book takes readers behind the closed doors of elite employers to reveal how class affects who gets to the top. Friedman and Laurison show that a powerful 'class pay gap’ exists in Britain’s elite occupations. Even when those from working-class backgrounds make it into prestigious jobs, they earn, on average, 16% less than colleagues from privileged backgrounds. But why is this the case?
The Class Pay Gap in Higher Professional and Managerial Occupations
Abramson, Corey M. 2015. The End Game: How Inequality Shapes Our Final Years. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar | Crossref Ashley, Louse, Duberly, Jo, Sommerlad, Hilary, Scholarios, Dora. 2015. “Non-educational Barriers to the Elite Professions Evaluation.” London, UK: Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/non-educational-barriers-to-the-elite-professions-evaluation). Google Scholar Atkinson, Will . 2010.
Social Class in the 21st Century
Recorded on 2 November 2015 at Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building A fresh take on social class from the experts behind the BBC's 'Great British Class Survey'. Social class has re-emerged as a topic of enormous scholarly and public attention. In this new book, Social Class in the 21st Century, Mike Savage and the team of sociologists responsible for the Great British Class Survey report their definitive findings and propose a new way of thinking about social class in Britain today.
The Class Pay Gap in Higher Professional and Managerial Occupations
This article demonstrates how class origin shapes earnings in higher professional and managerial employment. Taking advantage of newly released data in Britain’s Labour Force Survey, we examine the relative openness of different high-status occupations and the earnings of the upwardly mobile within them.
The Class Ceiling: The working class can get elite jobs - but they will never be boss
According to Alan Milburn – the Chair of Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission – one of the most pressing policy priorities of the next parliament is "opening up the top of British society". Britain, he argued in a major report in February, "remains – at heart – elitist". These sentiments are shared by all the main political parties, it seems. Nick Clegg, Ed Miliband and David Cameron have all made impassioned speeches on the topic.
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