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 and drawing on Foucauldian perspectives on governmentality and disciplinary power, the current study explores how these programmes may reproduce inequalities rather than challenge the status quo. It shows how a dominant discourse of merit invites participants to adopt a subject position that conforms with an idealised professional identity and how they shape their conduct in response. The core contribution is to suggest that social mobility initiatives framed by organisations as mechanisms to empower disadvantaged young people, might be read as expressions of neo-liberal governmentality, unequal power and corporate control.

历届英国政府都将相对的社会流动性差归咎于精英职业的趋势，即根据社会阶层将其排除在外。作为回应而实施的组织计划旨在识别社会经济背景相对较弱的有才华的年轻人，帮助他们确定为“合法”专业人员，并为他们配备相关的知识和技能。基于一项计划对35名参与者的访谈，并借鉴福柯关于政府性和纪律处分权的观点，本研究探索了这些计划如何重现不平等而不是挑战现状。它显示了优势的择优话语如何邀请参与者采取符合理想职业身份的主题立场，以及他们如何塑造自己的行为作为回应。