Published in 2023
6 hrs and 59 mins
Dr Faiza Shaheen is an economist, writer, activist, and commentator. She is the author of a range of materials and publications covering the most salient social and economic debates of our times, including inequality, austerity, immigration, youth unemployment, and social mobility. Faiza has over 15 years of experience researching the trends and consequences of inequality, as well as designing policies and campaigns to address the causes of inequality at its root. Previous jobs include Director of the Centre for Labour & Social Studies in London UK, a leading trade union-backed think tank, the Head of Inequality and Sustainable Development at Save the Children UK, and Senior Researcher on economic inequality at the New Economics Foundation. In 2017, Faiza was named the Observer Rising Star for Campaigning, nominated as Asian Woman of the Year and included in the Top 100 Influencers on the Left list in the UK. She has a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from St John’s College, Oxford University, and both an MSc in Research Methods & Statistics and a PhD from the University of Manchester.
What is this book about?
Dr Faiza Shaheen is a self-confessed stats geek and social mobility success story: from a working class background, she got into Oxford and is now a leading statistician, ceo of CLASS thinktank, and a visiting professor at NYU. But when her mother died after her benefits were cut by austerity measures, she decided to embark on a career in politics. When she lost in the 2019 election to incumbent Iain Duncan Smith, Shaheen decided to reframe her story, and set her own narrative against the statistics she researches.
The result is Know Your Place: how society sets us up to fail – part memoir, part polemic, this is a personal and statistical look at how society is built, the people it leaves behind, and what we can do about it. For readers of Invisible Women and Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, this is a compelling and insightful read which will change the way we think about opportunity in Britain.
