Precarious success and the conspiracy of reflexivity: questioning the ‘habitus transformation’ of working-class students at elite universities

Some authors argue that access to elite universities can bring about a ‘habitus transformation’ for working-class students, however in this paper, based on a three-year life history study, it is suggested that the transformative effects of the elite university experience come about in relation to and constrained by the working-class habitus. Working-class students tend to choose the strategy of ‘compartmentalising’ to manage their experience of university–engaging primarily academically and sideling the social aspects of university life. This paper offers a very complex account of such compartmentalising, in which the lack of appropriate capitals, emotional injuries, habitual dispositions and the application of instrumental rationality are fused together to make up the university experience for working-class students. The analysis demonstrates the ‘conspiracy’ of reflexivity. Reflexivity does not necessarily bring changes in and challenges to an existing habitus; rather reflexivity conspires with and tends to reinforce it. This demonstrates the continuing role of habitus in maintaining class domination in elite settings and raises questions about the effects and effectiveness of the widening participation agenda in HE.