qualifications, they celebrated the macho world of work, a reinterpretation that offered them a foundation from which to oppose the school’s norms. Willis underlined how the lads expressed their agency as they came up with creative strategies of resistance but, as they did so, they disqualified themselves from middle class jobs. A version of this chapter was previously published as: Ashley, L. (2021) ‘Organisational social mobility programmes as mechanisms of power and control’. Work, Employment and Society , DOI: 0950017021990550. I mention this book here because my
Why does the City of London, despite an apparent commitment to recruitment and progression based on objective merit within its hiring practices, continue to reproduce the status quo?
Written by a leading expert on diversity and elite professions, this book examines issues of equality in the City, what its practitioners say in public, and what they think behind closed doors.
Drawing on research, interviews, practitioner literature and internal reports, it argues that hiring practices in the City are highly discriminating in favour of a narrow pool of affluent applicants, and future progress may only be achieved by the state taking a greater role in organisational life. It calls for a policy shift at both the organisational and governmental level to the implications of widening inequality in the UK.
In a period where social unrest manifests itself by coinciding with young people’s dissatisfaction with formal political involvement and the diversification of protest movements across the globe, the question of youth participation is at the forefront of democratic societies.
This timely book offers a fresh look at youth participation: examining official and unofficial constructions of participation by young people in a range of socio-political domains, exploring the motivations and rationales underlying official attempts to increase participation among young people, and offering a critique of their effectiveness. Based on original research data, Youth participation in Europe provides a thorough analysis of participation initiatives at the implementation level and gives a transversal approach to various areas of youth participation. Drawing on examples from different European countries, it analyses the results of structure on youth participation and the effects of youth agencies on types of mobilisation.
One of the primary aims of organizational efforts at social mobility is to help people from working class backgrounds develop the confidence to apply for the City’s ‘top jobs’ and provide them with information on how to do so. Often, these programmes seem highly successful on these terms. Ju who I interviewed in 2019 had applied to numerous investment banks and said that without taking part in a social mobility programme, “I wouldn’t have been able to ever, you know, step foot in a place like that … I might have been a bit too intimidated to apply”. This may
journeys I explore here is that they are often grappling with stigma originating in gender, ethnicity and social class, and which is therefore based on identity characteristics that are simultaneously in/visible. In this chapter, I examine the effect of these intersections, as I explore their response, once again focusing specifically on alumni of social mobility programmes who have attempted to secure a front-office graduate job. I have already explained that some opt out though this is often a forced choice and withdrawal is not of course resistance in itself
Why does the City of London reproduce inequality and prevent social mobility despite an apparent commitment to recruitment and progression based on objective merit? Louise Ashley, a leading expert on diversity and elite professions, explores what occupants of the City’s ‘top jobs’ say about unfair practices contrasted with what they do, to explain the City’s persistent ‘class ceiling.’ Drawing on research, in-depth interviews and practitioner literature, she shows how hiring and promotion practices in the City are highly discriminating in favour of a narrow pool of people from more advantaged backgrounds who have privileged access to its exceptional rewards. She explains how this unfair and exclusionary reality has been obscured beneath a meritocratic veneer which suggests access to the City’s ‘top jobs’ relies on hard work and very special intellect skills, so that the concentration of rewards is truly deserved. More recently, unfair outcomes have been exposed and City firms have made attempts to diversify, operationalised via organisational social mobility programmes. However, as these efforts are driven by reputational concerns, they have a largely cosmetic effect. Meanwhile, the young working-class people who aspire to City jobs become pawns in this game and often experience quite painful psychic effects. Addressing these failures will require a radical policy shift at both the organisational and governmental level to focus not only on social mobility but also on tackling the very inequalities the City helps to create.
Why does the City of London reproduce inequality and prevent social mobility despite an apparent commitment to recruitment and progression based on objective merit? Louise Ashley, a leading expert on diversity and elite professions, explores what occupants of the City’s ‘top jobs’ say about unfair practices contrasted with what they do, to explain the City’s persistent ‘class ceiling.’ Drawing on research, in-depth interviews and practitioner literature, she shows how hiring and promotion practices in the City are highly discriminating in favour of a narrow pool of people from more advantaged backgrounds who have privileged access to its exceptional rewards. She explains how this unfair and exclusionary reality has been obscured beneath a meritocratic veneer which suggests access to the City’s ‘top jobs’ relies on hard work and very special intellect skills, so that the concentration of rewards is truly deserved. More recently, unfair outcomes have been exposed and City firms have made attempts to diversify, operationalised via organisational social mobility programmes. However, as these efforts are driven by reputational concerns, they have a largely cosmetic effect. Meanwhile, the young working-class people who aspire to City jobs become pawns in this game and often experience quite painful psychic effects. Addressing these failures will require a radical policy shift at both the organisational and governmental level to focus not only on social mobility but also on tackling the very inequalities the City helps to create.
’ (McLoughlin, 2010, p 2). The financial fallout from the economic collapse will be borne by today’s young people through reduced opportunities, welfare rollback, and cutbacks in educational, recreational, cultural and social mobility programmes. the status of young people in ireland An emerging trend in young people’s status in the Republic of Ireland is the resurgence of the terms ‘children’ and ‘child’ in the official discourse around young people. The Government has indicated that it intends to hold a referendum on children’s rights in the near future, there is an
perhaps that historically the City’s boosters and leaders have often resorted to similar discourses as a way to persuade stakeholders that their systems and structures are professional and therefore safe. As one veteran investment banker told me in 2016: “It all changed in the 1980s, yes. No I mean, it did … the City became more professional around then, it couldn’t just be about who you knew … But I mean, you know, it really changed after 2008.” In Part II , I will suggest that recent efforts to open up via organizational social mobility programmes are part of this
’t really justify that but at the very least I can help some of these kids get paid loads too.” As the agenda gathered pace, once again firms also imitated each other. Recruitment consultant Dean explained, once one bank had put its head above the parapet, “everyone else thought ... we better do something as well!” Dean is not quite correct to say every bank took up social mobility programmes, as coverage was and remains patchy overall. However, at the time of writing, increasing numbers of leading firms in a wider range of specialisms including asset and investment
