Bryan Boyle

I am a Guest Professor and Doctoral Researcher in Sociology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Although interested in all things related to social inequality, my research tends to lie at the intersection of the study of labour, culture, and elites, and is generally driven by the aim to understand and address issues pertaining to social class. Methodologically, I am specialised in qualitative methods and ethnographic research.

For my doctoral thesis, I am conducting an ethnography of the ‘butler’ profession, a profession that has experienced a surprising revival as wealthy groups and other elites again seek their expertise in private service. In the spirit of a carnal ‘enactive ethnography’, I actually trained at a butler school and worked as a butler in the UK. As I illustrate through the notion of ‘the labour of distinction’, studying butlers allows us to see how the most powerful in our society depend on the efforts of others to cultivate a lifestyle that brings them status.

My research has been published in two of the discipline’s leading journals: the American Sociological Review and The Sociological Review. In public media, I have written for The Sociological Review Magazine and Knack, and my research on butlers has recently been covered in outlets such as The Economist, The Times, and the Frankfurter Allgemeine.

As a Guest Professor, I lead the ‘Social Change and Inequality in Europe’ course. This is taught on the BSc Social Sciences program, which I have previously had the privilege to teach on as a teaching assistant, including courses on 'Critical Thinking in Sociology', 'Key Social Thinkers', and 'Seminar Current Issues I and II'. I supervise Bachelor dissertations under the topic: ‘Serving the (super-)rich: Service labour in a Pickettian world’.

I am a member of the European Centre for the Study of Culture & Inequality and have undertaken research stays at the University of Amsterdam and the LSE. I hold a Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Amsterdam and a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Politics from Nottingham Trent University.