21 Mar 2014
Sports professor features on BBC’s The Forum
Professor Alan Bairner talks social mobility and sport on BBC World Service’s The Forum this weekend (22/23 March).
The Forum is the BBC World Service's flagship discussion programme. It brings together prominent thinkers from different disciplines and different parts of the world to try and create stimulating discussion, informed by highly distinct academic, artistic and cultural backgrounds.
Alan is Professor of Sport and Social Theory in the University’s School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences.
He is joined on the programme by economist Prof Thomas Piketty from the Paris School of Economics, and economic historian Prof Gregory Clark from the University of California.
Prof Bairner explains:
“Some sports people are very socially mobile because of the earnings from professional sport, particularly in North America and Europe. But in some countries, people invest too much hope in using sport as a route to social mobility; the reality is only a very small percentage of people actually achieve social mobility through sport, and education is a far more reliable option.
“It was an honour to be invited onto The Forum to discuss social mobility alongside leading economic academics.”
Hear Alan on The Forum this Saturday (22 March) from 10.06pm. The programme is repeated on Sun 23 March at 10.06am and Mon 24 March at 3.06am.
BBC World Service radio is available on DAB digital radio, Freeview, satellite, cable and broadband.
The programme will also be available on the BBC website from Sunday 23 March and is available as a Podcast for four weeks after broadcast.