Podcast Summary: New Books Network — Joe Greenwood-Hau, "Capital, Privilege, and Political Participation" (Liverpool UP, 2025)

Guest: Dr. Joe Greenwood-Hau
Host: New Books in Critical Theory
Date: November 26, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, the host interviews Dr. Joe Greenwood-Hau about his new book, Capital, Privilege, and Political Participation (Liverpool University Press, 2025). The conversation delves into the nuanced and interconnected relationships between social capital, privilege, and the various ways individuals participate in politics. Dr. Greenwood-Hau discusses the origins of his interest in the topic, explores how capital and privilege shape political engagement, and reflects on the potential for interventions to address inequalities in political participation.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Motivation Behind the Book

• Raised in a politically active family, Greenwood-Hau's early experiences shaped his drive to understand why some people engage in politics while others do not.
• Working in campaigning organizations highlighted the lack of diversity among participants and sparked deeper questions about barriers to participation.
• Academic pursuits followed—specifically, a master's in political behavior—which cemented his research agenda on this topic.
  (03:21)

  "One of the reasons I was interested in this is because I was brought up in a deeply political environment by two very politically active parents... And one of the crucial questions ...was, well, why are we only getting certain sorts of people coming to volunteer...?"
  — Joe Greenwood-Hau [03:21]

2. Defining Political Participation

• Acknowledges the contested nature of "political participation."
• Moves beyond the narrow focus on voting to include a wide array of activities: individualized acts, contacting officials, collective action, volunteering, donating, and, yes, voting.
• His initial broad definition—any act to change or conserve society interacting with organizations—was deemed too broad, so he settled on a more typological, practical definition.
  (05:57)

  "My definition was sort of any attempt by an individ in interaction with an institution or organization to change or conserve an element of society at some level... So I ended up with this much more, ... less satisfying but workable definition... which is about different types of political act that people can undertake, which I split into sort of six categories."
  — Joe Greenwood-Hau [05:57]

3. Structural Privilege and Capital

• Focuses on unearned privilege: social advantages one is born into (class, race, gender, etc.).
• Distinguishes between earned and unearned privilege, highlighting the persistent inequalities between advantaged and marginalized groups.
• Defines capital as resources (economic, social, cultural), identifying how privilege sustains and reproduces itself through these forms.
  (09:05)

  "You can't have privilege for some without others being excluded from it... capitals, these stocks of resources, ...function both as a result and also a cause of this structural privilege..."
  — Joe Greenwood-Hau [09:05]

4. Who Participates and Why?

• Rejects hard categories of "participants" versus "non-participants," advocates for a spectrum or grades of participation.
• Demonstrates empirically that different forms of capital shape distinct forms of participation:
  • Economic Capital: Correlates with donating (more wealth = more/larger donations).
  • Social Capital: Key factor is being asked to participate; social networks drive engagement.
  • Cultural Capital:
    • "Legitimate" cultural capital (valued activities like attending classical music events, galleries) predicts higher individualized and collective participation.
    • "Popular" cultural capital (social leisure activities) is negatively associated with some types of political activity.
• Politics is "to some extent a distinguished activity" associated with particular kinds of capital and privilege.
  (12:15)

  "Politics is what I describe as a distinguished activity to some extent... people are more likely to hold stocks of particular kinds of capital."
  — Joe Greenwood-Hau [16:44]

5. Perceptions of Capital and Privilege

• Explores how people talk about and perceive privilege:

  • Economic privilege (especially home ownership, employment) is easily acknowledged.
  • Social capital is personalized—family, friends, personal networks are described as real privileges.
  • Cultural capital most commonly discussed in terms of formal education rather than leisure tastes, though some note the implicit societal value judgments attached to “legitimate” vs. “popular” culture.

• Notes a disjunction in how people explain societal inequality (structural causes) versus their own position (personal effort).
  (17:54; 25:53)

  "People are much more likely to attribute social inequality to background... But when... asked, but what about your social position? ...people say, well, hard work and ambition..."
  — Joe Greenwood-Hau [25:53]

• Many express discomfort in acknowledging their own privilege, preferring to locate themselves as “comfortable middle,” neither deprived nor excessively advantaged.

  "...people will sort of modestly recognize that they have a sort of advantageous social position... but they're very keen to sort of caveat it or downplay it."
  — Joe Greenwood-Hau [25:53]

6. Is Participation a Consequence or a Component of Privilege?

• Greenwood-Hau weighs two models:
  • Bourdieusian: Participation and privilege flow from the same social positions; not a direct causal chain.
  • Political Science/Resource Model: Privilege (in resources) leads sequentially to political participation.
• His evidence supports the sequential/resource model somewhat (privilege -> resources -> participation), but acknowledges it’s not definitive.
• Unpacking causality is methodologically challenging—surveys can rarely tell which comes first: certain capitals or participation.
  (31:34)

  "...these inequalities in capital are related to some extent to inequalities in political participation... But I put my hands up and say, but that is not the end of the case."
  — Joe Greenwood-Hau [36:31]

7. What Can Be Done?—Potential Interventions

• Interviewees (MPs, activists, low-participation citizens) converged on three key interventions:
  1. Outreach and Engagement: Meet people where they are, not expecting communities to come to institutional politics.
  2. Civic Education: Stronger, more consistent education about politics is needed.
  3. Trustworthy Information: Access to reliable, unbiased political information is crucial.
• Greenwood-Hau notes these interventions focus on political, not broader social, inequality; suggests tackling economic/social/cultural resource disparities is crucial for political equality.
• Broader redistribution and access to cultural/social public goods may lay the groundwork for more equal participation.
  (37:34)

  "If you create a society in which there is more economic equality and in which people have access to public social and cultural resources, that reduces inequality on multiple fronts and essentially potentially creates a flaw in which everyone has a certain level of these things and therefore everyone is able to some extent to get involved in politics..."
  — Joe Greenwood-Hau [41:58]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "You can't have privilege for some without others being excluded from it."
  — Joe Greenwood-Hau [09:05]
• "People with stocks of legitimate cultural capital are more likely to do those sorts of things..." (collective and individualized political acts)
  — Joe Greenwood-Hau [15:36]
• "People say, well, hard work and ambition," (regarding personal success)—describing a gap between personal and societal explanations of privilege
  — Joe Greenwood-Hau [25:53]
• On solutions:
  "All of the groups I spoke to... agreed with each other independently about what might help people to get involved in politics and to break down inequalities in political participation."
  — Joe Greenwood-Hau [39:51]
• On research complexity:
  "...randomly varying people's cultural tastes and habits is not possible. So we can't experimentally observe whether that stuff causes political participation. Right. So I think this is an incredibly tough nut to crack..."
  — Joe Greenwood-Hau [34:45]

Looking Ahead: Greenwood-Hau's Future Directions

• Working on the annual Youth Poll at the John Smith Centre (University of Glasgow), investigating political engagement and participation among young people.
• Exploring whether voters' perceptions of politicians’ capital (economic, social, cultural) shape attitudes toward those politicians—expanding this research internationally.
  (44:32)

  "I'm looking at whether or not people think that politicians with particular stocks of economic, social and cultural capital are more or less like them, are more or less competent, and are more or less ... desirable in terms of willingness to vote for them."
  — Joe Greenwood-Hau [44:32]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:21 — Greenwood-Hau’s personal motivation
• 05:57 — Defining political participation
• 09:05 — Structural privilege & capital
• 12:15–16:44 — Different forms/correlates of participation
• 17:54–25:53 — Perceptions of privilege and capital; narratives of inequality
• 31:34 — Is participation a consequence or component of privilege?
• 37:34–41:58 — Potential interventions and their limits
• 44:32 — Greenwood-Hau's future research plans

Tone and Style

Throughout, Greenwood-Hau is reflective, honest about the limitations of the research, and attuned to nuances and contradictions in people’s lives and self-conceptions. The episode’s tone is thoughtful, accessible, and focused less on “hot takes” than on developing a sophisticated analysis of political engagement, exclusion, and the structures that underpin them.

Useful For:
Anyone interested in political sociology, social inequality, civic participation, or the complex role of privilege and capital in modern democracies. Whether practitioner, academic, or curious citizen, this episode provides a rich conceptual framework and empirical insights into one of contemporary politics' most pressing issues.