Comment: Shops and restaurants can blur class lines Published on: 18 September 2023 Writing for The Conversation, Niall Cunningham discusses how shops and restaurants can blur class lines but not enough to boost social mobility. , Titanic, James Cameron鈥檚 1997 multi-Oscar-winning movie, focused on the tragic love story of itinerant artist Jack and upper-class socialite Rose. Among their other on-board adventures, they dined in the first-class section of the ship before joining revellers dancing in the third-class quarters. Their exploration of the ill-fated vessel represents a transgression 鈥� not just of public boundaries, but of class ones too. More recently, mobile phone location data is being used to track such interactions across class boundaries. Understanding class segregation matters because, as economists like Raj Chetty , interaction or 鈥渆conomic connectedness鈥� between low and high-income groups is a key predictor of how likely people are to be able to move up the social ladder. This is crucial at a time when, in the UK, social mobility is at a low. People now find it much harder , according to think tank Institute for Fiscal Studies. Had the Titanic鈥檚 passengers had access to mobile phones in 1912, the data generated by examining the proximity 鈥� and therefore potential interaction 鈥� of passengers would have given the impression the Titanic was a sort of utopia for social interaction. People from diverse social and ethnic backgrounds were seemingly thrown together on board 鈥� from the poorest European migrants seeking better lives in the 鈥淣ew World鈥�, to the wealthiest of Edwardian socialites, shuttling from the salons of London and Paris to New York and Philadelphia. Of course, accommodation on board was highly segregated, as shown in the movie, but the whole spectrum of the Edwardian era was represented on the one ship. But, as with today鈥檚 data, the reality was very different. Nothing shows the entrenched social gradient that travelled with the Titanic鈥檚 passengers more than after the ship sank: just a quarter of third-class passengers survived compared to 62% of those in first class. The Conversation is partnering with , the world鈥檚 largest philosophy and music festival, which returns to Kenwood House in London on September 23-24. On Saturday 23, we will host a discussion on how to restructure society for . and don鈥檛 miss getting The experience of the Titanic鈥檚 passengers points to the challenges and opportunities that still exist today when trying to understand social interaction and mobility. Big data doesn鈥檛 reveal real interactions When studying class interactions, demographers and statisticians have traditionally been largely limited to static and infrequently updated tools such as . But residence is a blunt instrument when trying to understand class segregation. Domicile has always been just one aspect of the lived reality of segregation 鈥� even if it might be the defining feature. In the most segregated of spaces, most people spend their daily lives elsewhere: studying, shopping, working or pursuing leisure activities. illustrates the potential for teasing out some of this complexity using about people鈥檚 locations and movements. Because so many of us own smartphones, researchers can track people as they work, rest and play. This can offer rich new insights into how people from different class backgrounds interact across the course of the day. The US analysis leads the study鈥檚 authors to some important insights, most notably that it is the wealthiest, not the poorest, fraction of society that is, statistically speaking, most socially 鈥渋solated鈥�. This echoes the work of urban geographers and sociologists on this side of the Atlantic. They have identified groups of the very richest in society who have adopted strategies of 鈥溾��. For example, people might use tactics such as 鈥渧erticality鈥� 鈥� using or subterranean 鈥溾��) to evade the gaze of the masses. Perhaps more controversially, the recent US paper also concludes: 鈥減laces that contribute most to mixing by economic class are not civic spaces like churches or schools, but large, affordable chain restaurants and stores鈥�. The researchers specifically mention US eateries Olive Garden and Applebee鈥檚. Policymakers should therefore 鈥減ay attention to the role of firms in shaping class mixing鈥�. While revealing in many ways, this kind of data can tell us nothing about how meaningful these 鈥渋nteractions鈥� in the market actually are. The people captured in such studies may have simply shared the same commercial spaces for an hour or less, without even speaking. A 鈥榥ew snobbery鈥� We also have to consider the idea of . This is something I, along with my colleagues, to back in 2015. If they have the means, more people can now access the same goods or services. This lessens past distinctions between groups like those illustrated by the conspicuous consumption of the Titanic鈥檚 first class passengers, for example. Instead, our research revealed a 鈥溾��: the self-awareness that some people consciously eat or shop 鈥渄own鈥�, perhaps as part of an ironic desire to experiment with different and diverse class spaces. In his book on snobbery, sociologist David Morgan gives the example of 鈥� what is excused as a guilty pleasure for the middle class can conversely be presented as evidence of profound moral failure among the working class. Big data offers exciting granularity on practices and preferences but still can only tell us a little about the persistent, subtle and pernicious class prejudices and exclusions that can lie beneath the numbers. Understanding more, not just about where people interact, but where the blurring of economic class lines is most likely to occur, could help us to address some of today鈥檚 concerns about falling social mobility and stagnating living standards. 鈥檚 theme for London 2023 is . The two-day festival on September 23-24 covers everything from politics, science, philosophy and the arts and attracts a host of speakers including Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer prize-winners, political activists and world leading thinkers. Alongside the Conversation鈥檚 curated event , expect to see Alastair Campbell, Rory Stewart, Ruby Wax, Michio Kaku, David Baddiel, Carol Gilligan, Martin Wolf and more lock horns over a packed weekend of debates, talks and performances. and don鈥檛 miss out on . , Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Human Geography, This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the . 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