Promoting social mobility in marginalised neighbourhoods has become a powerful concern in public, political, and academic debates. This talk, however, places the ideal of social mobility itself at the centre of analysis. Drawing on in-depth fieldwork in stigmatised neighbourhoods in Germany, and Miro’s forthcoming book Social Ladders (Oxford University Press, 2026), the presentation explores the contradictions between the lofty promises of social mobility, its ambivalent politics, and its complex manifestations in people’s lived experiences. To understand the divisive nature and hidden costs of social mobility, Miro argues, we must listen not only to the few who have ‘made it’ up the ladder to social and economic success. We must also include the voices of those commonly seen as having been ‘left behind.’

About the speaker

Anthony Miro Born is an ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Methodology, London School of Economics and Political Science. His research focuses on the causes and consequences of urban inequality with a particular focus on housing and social class. Miro’s writing has been published in several sociology and urban studies journals, including Urban Studies, city, The Sociological Review and Berliner Journal für Soziologie. He is the co-editor of Intersectionality and the City (Routledge, 2025); his forthcoming monograph Social Ladders is under contract with Oxford University Press.