Diamonds in the Rough: How Social Class Difference is (De)Valued in Elite Accountancy Firms

Abstract

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 commissioned study examining attitudes towards socio-economic diversity in elite PSFs, we use critical discursive psychology to analyse and illustrate how these tensions are managed in talk. Empirically, this illustrates that interviewees draw on contradictory ‘interpretative repertoires’ to present themselves and their firms as balanced and fair, thereby helping to legitimate their continuing use of exclusionary practices. We interpret these findings theoretically using the work of Bourdieu, to highlight how the location of firms within overlapping fields limits professionals’ agency to challenge the status quo.