Contributor(s): Professor Michèle Lamont | This lecture will diagnose the challenges of neoliberal American society: the pitfalls of the American dream across classes, hardened group boundaries, and the need to invent new narratives of hope. Michèle Lamont (@mlamont6) is Professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University. Rebecca Elliott is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, LSE. Established in 1904, the Department of Sociology @LSEsociology at LSE is committed to empirically rich, conceptually sophisticated, and socially and politically relevant research and scholarship. Building upon the traditions of the discipline, we play a key role in the development of the social sciences into the new intellectual areas, social problems, and ethical dilemmas that face our society today. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEBJSAL This event forms part of the “New World (Dis)Orders” series, held in the run up to the LSE Festival, a week-long series of events taking place from 25 February to 2 March 2019, free to attend and open to all, exploring how social science can tackle global issues. How did we get here? What are the challenges? And, importantly, how can we address them? Full programme available online from January 2019.