Hegemony through Responsibilisation: Getting Working-Class Students into Higher Education in the United Kingdom

Abstract

This article examines the role of the New Labour government's agenda for widening participation in higher education as a form of a responsibilising discourse of working-class young people. Under the New Labour administrations of 1997–2010, a concerted attempt was made to attract working-class students into higher education through promotional initiatives such as the Aimhigher programme. Drawing from Raymond Williams' discussion of hegemony and also from Nikolas Rose's concept of the ‘enterprising self’, this article examines three explanatory/promotional documents from the Aimhigher programme, aimed at working-class young people and their parents. The documents are analysed as materialisations of a powerfully hegemonic discourse of ‘responsibilisation’ towards participation in higher education. The article concludes with a discussion of the ways in which the widening access agenda has shifted since the Conservative-led coalition government came to power in 2010.