ABSTRACT
The emergence of post-industrialisation and, with it, a knowledge economy, articulated by Daniel Bell (1973), introduced a supposed sea change in social stratification. Gone were positions based on birth right, and, instead, a social system was formed based on knowledge with the new elites earning their positions through hard work and diligence – creating an avenue for all, if hungry enough, to rise to these lofty heights. Through the meritocratic narratives of human capital theorists such as Theodore Schultz (1971), education became a cornerstone in the pursuit for social equality, and increased access to education became a simple yet elegant policy to foster social mobility. As Tight (2012) has discussed, while ‘widening participation’ has not always been in the public/policy vocabulary, it is a policy with its roots in post-war Britain, beginning with the 1944 Education Act and the Robbins Report (1963).
