Louise Ashley
Biographic Data
| ID | 257809 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Louise Ashley |
| GIVEN NAMES | Louise |
| FAMILY NAME | Ashley |
| SIGNATURE | ASHLEY L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Queen Mary University of London |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5194-2012 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 122 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 13 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
More Than a Role Dispute
This article examines how the legitimacy of physician associates (PAs) is constructed and contested in English medicine. Drawing on Critical Discursive Psychology, it analyses formal submissions to a government commissioned independent review of medical associate professions from the British Medical Association, General Medical Council and United Medical Associate Professionals to ask: What does conflict over PAs reveal about fractures in medical…
What’s the Difference? Market vs State Alignment in the Professional Consequences of Diversity
Across the UK and industrialised West, corporate law and medicine have diversified according to gender, yet their power has moved in opposite directions. This article asks what difference diversification makes to professions and the forms of power they exercise, with diversification defined here primarily as the increased representation of women and thus quantitative change. While mainstream accounts emphasise a ‘business case’ for diversity, whi…
Directing change? Reflections on participatory programmes and inclusive theatres cultures
Participatory programmes in theatres typically aim to amplify the voice of people less commonly involved in ‘mainstream' theatre. Past scholarship has evaluated their impact on participants but paid less attention to the reciprocal impact on the internal culture and ‘diversity climate' of theatres. Drawing on exploratory research at two leading UK theatre companies, the National Theatre and the Young Vic, we reflect first on what this tells us ab…
Diamonds in the Rough
Professional Service Firms (PSFs) rely on their socially exclusive approach to recruitment as a source of cultural capital and social prestige, but recent developments have obliged them to implement a more inclusive recruitment policy. The resulting contradiction between exclusivity and inclusivity has accentuated pre-existing tensions inherent to professions’ claim to high status and their supposed social detachment. Drawing from a UK government…
Ambivalent Agents
This article examines civil society organisations working to enhance social mobility in England, especially through higher education. Against the backdrop of neoliberal governance, we investigate whether these organisations operate as protective counter-movements resisting marketisation or as institutional mechanisms that stabilise the inequalities they aim to address. Drawing on Karl Polanyi's concept of the 'double movement' and Nancy Fraser's …
The Golden Ticket? Widening Access in UK Medicine and the Making of an Emotional Proletariat
Widening Access' in UK medicine seeks to improve access on the basis of socioeconomic background (SEB). However, evidence has emerged of 'socially stratified' careers, as doctors from less advantaged backgrounds are more likely to train in less competitive specialties, such as psychiatry or primary care. These patterns have been welcomed to date as this improves access to care, yet less positive consequences have been overlooked. Based on in-dept…
When the Penny Drops
In the UK, the medical profession is socially exclusive and socially stratified as doctors from more advantaged backgrounds are more likely to train for specialities with more competitive entry. However, in research to date the causes and consequences of social stratification have been overlooked. We explore this subject here, drawing on a qualitative study comprising in-depth interviews with 30 medical students and doctors from less advantaged s…
Highly Discriminating
Highly Discriminating
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 lit…
Organisational Social Mobility Programmes as Mechanisms of Power and Control
Successive UK governments have blamed poor rates of relative social mobility on the tendency of elite occupations to exclude according to social class. Organisational programmes implemented in response aim to identify talented young people from less privileged socio-economic backgrounds, help them identify as 'legitimate' professionals, and equip them with relevant knowledge and skills. Based on interviews with 35 participants in one programme an…
Understanding social exclusion in elite professional service firms
This article explores social exclusion in elite professional service firms (PSFs) through a qualitative study of six legal, accounting, investment banking and consulting firms. Employing a Bourdieusian perspective we find that all six firms privilege candidates with the same narrow forms of cultural capital, while acknowledging that this contradicts their professed commitment to social inclusion and recruiting the best 'talent'. We find that this…
Differentiation and discrimination
For leading law firms in the City of London, diversity and inclusion has become an important human resources strategy over the past 15 years. A recent focus on social class within the sector has been encouraged by increasing governmental concerns relating to social mobility, which acknowledge that elite professions, particularly the law, have become more socially exclusive over the past 30 years. Based on a detailed qualitative study of six leadi…
Making a difference? The use (and abuse) of diversity management at the UK's elite law firms
The UK's elite law firms have recently seen a shift from talking about equality of opportunity alone to the adoption of a diversity discourse as well. This article examines this transition for what it can tell us about the value of diversity strategies as a means for widening access to the corporate legal profession on the basis of social class, focusing on five elite law firms based in the City of London. A number of studies have demonstrated ho…
Understanding social exclusion in elite professional service firms
This article explores social exclusion in elite professional service firms (PSFs) through a qualitative study of six legal, accounting, investment banking and consulting firms. Employing a Bourdieusian perspective we find that all six firms privilege candidates with the same narrow forms of cultural capital, while acknowledging that this contradicts their professed commitment to social inclusion and recruiting the best 'talent'. We find that this…
Differentiation and discrimination
For leading law firms in the City of London, diversity and inclusion has become an important human resources strategy over the past 15 years. A recent focus on social class within the sector has been encouraged by increasing governmental concerns relating to social mobility, which acknowledge that elite professions, particularly the law, have become more socially exclusive over the past 30 years. Based on a detailed qualitative study of six leadi…
Making a difference? The use (and abuse) of diversity management at the UK's elite law firms
The UK's elite law firms have recently seen a shift from talking about equality of opportunity alone to the adoption of a diversity discourse as well. This article examines this transition for what it can tell us about the value of diversity strategies as a means for widening access to the corporate legal profession on the basis of social class, focusing on five elite law firms based in the City of London. A number of studies have demonstrated ho…
Organisational Social Mobility Programmes as Mechanisms of Power and Control
Successive UK governments have blamed poor rates of relative social mobility on the tendency of elite occupations to exclude according to social class. Organisational programmes implemented in response aim to identify talented young people from less privileged socio-economic backgrounds, help them identify as 'legitimate' professionals, and equip them with relevant knowledge and skills. Based on interviews with 35 participants in one programme an…
When the Penny Drops
In the UK, the medical profession is socially exclusive and socially stratified as doctors from more advantaged backgrounds are more likely to train for specialities with more competitive entry. However, in research to date the causes and consequences of social stratification have been overlooked. We explore this subject here, drawing on a qualitative study comprising in-depth interviews with 30 medical students and doctors from less advantaged s…
Ambivalent Agents
This article examines civil society organisations working to enhance social mobility in England, especially through higher education. Against the backdrop of neoliberal governance, we investigate whether these organisations operate as protective counter-movements resisting marketisation or as institutional mechanisms that stabilise the inequalities they aim to address. Drawing on Karl Polanyi's concept of the 'double movement' and Nancy Fraser's …
Making a difference? The use (and abuse) of diversity management at the UK's elite law firms
The UK's elite law firms have recently seen a shift from talking about equality of opportunity alone to the adoption of a diversity discourse as well. This article examines this transition for what it can tell us about the value of diversity strategies as a means for widening access to the corporate legal profession on the basis of social class, focusing on five elite law firms based in the City of London. A number of studies have demonstrated ho…
Differentiation and discrimination
For leading law firms in the City of London, diversity and inclusion has become an important human resources strategy over the past 15 years. A recent focus on social class within the sector has been encouraged by increasing governmental concerns relating to social mobility, which acknowledge that elite professions, particularly the law, have become more socially exclusive over the past 30 years. Based on a detailed qualitative study of six leadi…
Understanding social exclusion in elite professional service firms
This article explores social exclusion in elite professional service firms (PSFs) through a qualitative study of six legal, accounting, investment banking and consulting firms. Employing a Bourdieusian perspective we find that all six firms privilege candidates with the same narrow forms of cultural capital, while acknowledging that this contradicts their professed commitment to social inclusion and recruiting the best 'talent'. We find that this…
Highly Discriminating
Highly Discriminating
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 lit…
Organisational Social Mobility Programmes as Mechanisms of Power and Control
Successive UK governments have blamed poor rates of relative social mobility on the tendency of elite occupations to exclude according to social class. Organisational programmes implemented in response aim to identify talented young people from less privileged socio-economic backgrounds, help them identify as 'legitimate' professionals, and equip them with relevant knowledge and skills. Based on interviews with 35 participants in one programme an…
When the Penny Drops
In the UK, the medical profession is socially exclusive and socially stratified as doctors from more advantaged backgrounds are more likely to train for specialities with more competitive entry. However, in research to date the causes and consequences of social stratification have been overlooked. We explore this subject here, drawing on a qualitative study comprising in-depth interviews with 30 medical students and doctors from less advantaged s…
What’s the Difference? Market vs State Alignment in the Professional Consequences of Diversity
Across the UK and industrialised West, corporate law and medicine have diversified according to gender, yet their power has moved in opposite directions. This article asks what difference diversification makes to professions and the forms of power they exercise, with diversification defined here primarily as the increased representation of women and thus quantitative change. While mainstream accounts emphasise a ‘business case’ for diversity, whi…
Directing change? Reflections on participatory programmes and inclusive theatres cultures
Participatory programmes in theatres typically aim to amplify the voice of people less commonly involved in ‘mainstream' theatre. Past scholarship has evaluated their impact on participants but paid less attention to the reciprocal impact on the internal culture and ‘diversity climate' of theatres. Drawing on exploratory research at two leading UK theatre companies, the National Theatre and the Young Vic, we reflect first on what this tells us ab…
Diamonds in the Rough
Professional Service Firms (PSFs) rely on their socially exclusive approach to recruitment as a source of cultural capital and social prestige, but recent developments have obliged them to implement a more inclusive recruitment policy. The resulting contradiction between exclusivity and inclusivity has accentuated pre-existing tensions inherent to professions’ claim to high status and their supposed social detachment. Drawing from a UK government…
Ambivalent Agents
This article examines civil society organisations working to enhance social mobility in England, especially through higher education. Against the backdrop of neoliberal governance, we investigate whether these organisations operate as protective counter-movements resisting marketisation or as institutional mechanisms that stabilise the inequalities they aim to address. Drawing on Karl Polanyi's concept of the 'double movement' and Nancy Fraser's …
The Golden Ticket? Widening Access in UK Medicine and the Making of an Emotional Proletariat
Widening Access' in UK medicine seeks to improve access on the basis of socioeconomic background (SEB). However, evidence has emerged of 'socially stratified' careers, as doctors from less advantaged backgrounds are more likely to train in less competitive specialties, such as psychiatry or primary care. These patterns have been welcomed to date as this improves access to care, yet less positive consequences have been overlooked. Based on in-dept…
More Than a Role Dispute
This article examines how the legitimacy of physician associates (PAs) is constructed and contested in English medicine. Drawing on Critical Discursive Psychology, it analyses formal submissions to a government commissioned independent review of medical associate professions from the British Medical Association, General Medical Council and United Medical Associate Professionals to ask: What does conflict over PAs reveal about fractures in medical…
Political science (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Law (6 works) · Elite (5 works) · Gender Diversity and Inequality (5 works) · Inequality (5 works) · Public relations (5 works) · Social mobility (5 works) · Law (4 works) · Legitimacy (4 works)