As recently as last night, I found myself struggling to sleep. It was the night before delivering a course on how to prepare students for the upcoming exams, and whilst I had no worries about the course itself, the fear of having to wake up at 6.30am to meet colleagues for breakfast meant my brain was firing at a time when it really should have been resting. I do tend to have a certain amount of anxiety about being late, sleeping through alarms, and just generally causing others inconvenience, which really doesn’t help when working to specific scheduled times. That said, I chose this path, and so a restless night’s sleep is the least I can expect for the many benefits I gain from being a freelancer… but that’s another story.
After tossing and turning in my hotel room for several hours I switched on the TV, in the vain hope I would find something to just stop my brain working. Instead, I found something of sociological interest (what isn’t). the 2015 film adaptation of J G Ballard’s High Rise, starring Tom Hiddleston, Sienna Miller, Jeremy Irons and Luke Evans. Disclaimer here, Tom Hiddleston’s narration of High Rise has been on my Audible account and listened to several times already, so my familiarity with the story sort of drew me in, but it also struck me (inconveniently at 1am) as something that potentially could be a super curricular activity for students of sociology.
High-Rise and High-Rise — A Sociological Reading of Class, Culture and Closure
Why sociology turns up everywhere in art
One of the most effective super-curricular activities for A-level sociology students is learning to “read” cultural texts sociologically. Sociology is not only found in textbooks, statistics and research studies – it is embedded across novels, films, music, architecture and visual art. Cultural works often function like thought experiments: they exaggerate social patterns so we can see power, inequality and identity more clearly.
A strong example of this is High-Rise. Both the book and film offer a compact model of class inequality, cultural capital and social closure in action.
Content note for students: both the novel and film contain explicit sexual material, disturbing imagery and sustained violence. They are best approached with maturity and with a clear analytical purpose.
Sociology is everywhere in art
Before diving into theory, it’s worth stating a bigger point: sociology frequently appears in art forms because artists regularly explore:
- inequality
- hierarchy
- identity
- power
- belonging
- exclusion
- social breakdown
Writers and filmmakers often ask the same questions sociologists ask – just through narrative and symbolism instead of surveys and methods. Treating cultural texts as sociological case studies is excellent preparation for higher-level study because it strengthens theory application and interpretation skills.
The High-Rise as a Model of Class Inequality
At the centre of High-Rise is a luxury tower block designed as a self-contained world. Its residents are stratified vertically: the higher the floor, the higher the status. What begins as mild inconvenience between floors escalates into resource hoarding, territorial conflict and eventually open class warfare.
From a sociological perspective, this is stratification made physical.
Upper levels have:
- more space
- more influence
- better access to building control
- stronger social networks
Lower levels experience:
- service failures first
- exclusion from decision-making
- growing insecurity
This reflects Marxist conflict theory, where unequal control of resources produces tension and struggle. It also illustrates Weber’s concept of life chances – people’s opportunities are shaped by their social position, not just their personal qualities. The tower shows how inequality is not just about income but about structured access to safety, comfort and authority.
The key sociological insight here is that when systems are stressed, inequality tends to intensify rather than disappear.
Cultural Capital – Taste, Lifestyle and Class Signals
A striking feature of both the novel and film is how clearly class differences are expressed through lifestyle and taste. The upper-floor residents are not just wealthier — they display distinctive cultural markers:
- exclusive social events
- controlled etiquette
- aesthetic refinement
- confidence in professional authority
- distance from manual or routine concerns
This aligns closely with Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital — the idea that knowledge, taste and cultural competence operate as resources that help maintain class advantage. Culture becomes a sorting mechanism.
In sociological terms:
- taste creates symbolic boundaries
- manners signal group membership
- lifestyle expresses class habitus
The film makes this especially visible through costume, décor, music and food choices, while the novel shows it through internal attitudes and perceptions. Even as order collapses, class-coded behaviour persists – a powerful illustration of how deeply habitus is embedded.
The striking example in the film, is when Hiddleston’s Robert Laing is locked in the elevator, and a guest examines his choice of wine he has brought, stating Laing is a ‘cheap bastard’ because of his choice.
Social Closure – How Advantage Gets Defended
As conditions deteriorate inside the building, elite residents increasingly restrict access to resources and spaces. Informal alliances form. Facilities are blocked off. Outsiders are excluded. Punishments become collective.
This is a textbook illustration of Weber’s idea of social closure – the process by which groups protect their advantages by limiting access to opportunities and resources. Later theorists describe this as exclusionary closure, where privileged groups actively defend their position.
What makes High-Rise sociologically useful is that closure continues even after formal authority breaks down. There are no effective rules – yet class boundaries harden rather than dissolve. Power reproduces itself through networks, coordination and shared interest.
This supports a key sociological argument: inequality is sustained socially and culturally, not just legally.
Class Identity and Moral Division
Another theme running through both versions is how quickly class becomes identity. Residents begin to see their floor as their group and others as enemies, most notably when Wilder (Luke Evans) asks the Architect (Jeremy Irons) what floor he is from. Divisions become moralised – each group sees itself as justified and others as illegitimate.
This connects with:
- social identity theory – group membership shapes behaviour and loyalty
- ideology – privilege becomes framed as deserved
- anomie – shared norms collapse, replaced by group codes
The breakdown is not just material – it is psychological and symbolic.
Novel vs Film — A Useful Comparison
From an analytical point of view, the two versions offer different sociological strengths.
The novel reads like a clinical case study of social and psychological breakdown. It is detached, observational and internally focused.
The film is more visually satirical and exaggerated. It heightens decadence and spectacle to sharpen its critique of class and privilege.
That difference itself is sociologically useful: it shows how medium shapes message. Written texts explore interior meaning; films amplify symbolic contrast.
Why This Makes a Strong Super-Curricular Exercise
Using High-Rise as a sociological case study helps students practise:
- applying theory to cultural material
- identifying class processes in narrative form
- linking concepts like cultural capital and closure to evidence
- making evaluative comparisons across media
It also reinforces a bigger lesson: sociology is not confined to academic writing. It appears across art, film and literature – anywhere social life is being represented and questioned.
Just perhaps not the gentlest viewing choice the night before an early professional development course.
At the time of writing High Rise is available on 4 on Demand in the UK.
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