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About The Book

The chance of Cameron and Johnson going to Oxford and becoming MPs was one in 10,000, whereas it was close to one in 10 million for me - 10 times more unlikely than getting struck by lightning. Why should anyone have to work 1,000 times harder to do the same thing as anyone else? And why would we set society up to work this way?

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.

About The Author

Dr Faiza Shaheen is currently a Visiting Professor in Practice at the London School of Economics. She has worked as an economist, policy advisor and political commentator, authoring a range of materials and publications covering the most salient social and economic debates of our times, including inequality, austerity, immigration, housing and youth unemployment. Her most recent policy report was launched by the former prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, as well as six other national leaders on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. In 2017, she was named the Observer Rising Star for Campaigning and nominated as Asian Woman of the Year at the Asian Achievers Awards.

Faiza has been selected by the Labour Party to contest her home seat of Chingford and Woodford Green against the former leader of the Conservative Party, Iain Duncan Smith, at the next general election.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK (June 8, 2023)
  • Length: 352 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781398505384

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Raves and Reviews

‘A stunning and devastating indictment of a society scarred and defined by inequality, by one of the most charismatic and compelling voices in politics today’

– Owen Jones

‘Faiza’s work is living proof that you don’t have to choose between focusing on class and battling racism, or to triangulate on hate in order to advance a political cause. She’s a testament to the power of rising with your community, and not out of it’

– Ash Sarkar

‘A brilliant, forensic and also very personal analysis of how unfair life is in the most economically unequal country in Europe – giving power a strong dose of truth’

– Professor Danny Dorling, University of Oxford

‘In this impassioned and thoughtful book, Faiza Shaheen dismantles the myth of meritocracy and compellingly shows that we need to fundamentally challenge the unsustainable and unjust inequalities that abound in Britain today’

– Professor Mike Savage, London School of Economics

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