Exclusionary Inclusion: Cultural Repertoires and Equity Categories in Elite Universities

This paper examines how staff and students at an elite university in Latin America draw on cultural resources to make sense of widening participation (WP) efforts and their implications. Specifically, it asks: How do institutional actors at elite universities understand WP initiatives, and what are the consequences of these understandings for students admitted through these programmes? Common portrayals of institutional actors in elite settings suggest they are ideologically unified in their efforts to maintain status and exclusion, often overlooking heterarchies of value and the differential power actors have to shape institutional practices. While cultural sociologists acknowledge multiple grammars of worth and their links to (e)valuative processes, much of the focus has been on outcomes—identifying winners and losers of these processes. This article addresses these gaps by staying close to the multiplicity of evaluative criteria within WP initiatives and the equity categories that stem from them.

Drawing on interviews and observational data, the study reveals how different cultural repertoires of merit and prestige coexist with those of inclusion and diversity. Results illustrate the cultural meaning that emerges– ‘talent and inclusion’–is enshrined in equity that produces open-ended and ambiguous outcomes. While the WP programme has expanded the understanding of talent and who belongs in elite education, it has also introduced hierarchical classifications where equity categories are imbued with ordinal value, particularly around meritocratic boundaries. This has significant implications for how WP students are perceived and how they understand their own place within the institution. Importantly, this locally produced classification system can lead to ‘exclusionary inclusion’, undermining the recognition and status of low-income students. The paper underscores the importance of engaging with institutional contradictions, as they reveal how inclusion and exclusion coexist. By paying attention to the cultural foundations of inequality, more equitable repertoires for future admissions processes can be developed.