Anita Biressi is Reader in Media Cultures at the University of Roehampton, UK. Her research interests include news and tabloid journalism, reality television, class and popular culture, gender and political representation. She is the author of Crime, Fear and the Law (2001) and co-author of Reality TV: Realism and Revelation (2005).

Heather Nunn is Professor of Culture and Politics at the University of Roehampton, UK. Her research interests include political communication, formations of gender and class, documentary and images of childhood. She is the author of Thatcher, Politics and Fantasy (2002) and co-author of Reality TV: Realism and Revelation (2005).

Looks at how images of class difference are circulated across various different media, and analyses their influence on the way we understand social distinction, social value and social progress

Taps into a resurgence of academic interest in class and social mobility

Explores popular television, documentary, autobiography, journalism and political commentary

Investigates contemporary notions of the 'chav', the sinkestate tenant, the politically dispossessed, the underclass, the new middle class and the upperclass subject

PART I: INTRODUCTION: BEGINNING THE WORK OF CLASS AND CULTURE
1. Class-work: Social Change and Class Critique after the 1980s
2. Class-work after 'the Death of Class'
3. Class and Contemporary British Culture: Outline
PART II: ESSEX: CLASS, ASPIRATION AND SOCIAL MOBILITY
1. Essex, Conservatism and 'the New Sociology of Aspirations'
2. The Discovery of Essex Man
3. I've got loadsamoney!
4. Class, Taste and the Essex Girl
PART III: THE REVOLTING 'UNDERCLASS': 'YOU KNOW THEM WHEN YOU SEE THEM'
1. The 2011 English Riots and the 'Feral Underclass'
2. The 1980s: 'The Underclass, so Long Prophesied, is Now Emerging'
3. The 1990s: from the 'Underclass' to the Socially Excluded
4. The 'Underclass' Returns: Lifestyle, Consumerism, Precariousness
PART IV: TOP OF THE CLASS: EDUCATION, CAPITAL AND CHOICE
1. Inspiring the Uninspired
2. Sharp Elbows and the Competition for Resources
3. The Choice-directive or Choosing to Choose
4. The Parent-citizen and the Deployment of Capital
5. More Dream Schools
6. Poor Choices
PART V: THE ONES WHO GOT AWAY: CELEBRITY LIFE STORIES OF UPWARD SOCIAL MOBILITY
1. Celebrity Biography: Production and Consumption
2. Celebrities Working to Keep it Real
3. I Dreamed a Dream: Celebrity Origins
4. 'How did I get here from there?': Celebrity Endings
PART VI: THE UPPER CLASSES: VISIBILITY, ADAPTABILITY AND CHANGE
1. The Business of Aristocracy
2. The Royal Family at Work
3. Upper Class Life-stylists: the Knowledge, the Gift and the Rules
PART VII: 'ARE YOU THINKING WHAT WE'RE THINKING?' : CLASS, IMMIGRATION AND BELONGING
1. Borders, Belonging and 'Saloon bar' Britons
2. Hylton-Potts and the Cabbies' Manifesto
3. The 'Good Woman' from Rochdale
4. All White in Barking
PART VIII: AUSTERITY BRITAIN: BACK TO THE FUTURE
1. In Times of Strife: the Myth of the 1970s Now
2. The Embattled Citizen: Keeping Calm and Carrying On
3. Past Times, Present Politics
4. 'The isle is full of noises': History Answers Back
Afterword: 'We are all in this together'