City Research Online

Abstract

Social exclusion is a persistent problem in elite professions. While scholarship has emphasized structural and cultural barriers, less is known about relational practices and mechanisms through which social exclusion is sustained. Drawing on interviews with 84 lawyers, paralegals, and managers in elite UK law firms, we develop a conceptual model of how the blurring and affirming of social and symbolic boundaries between higher-status and lowerstatus groups reproduces social exclusion. We show how both groups blur and affirm boundaries across three domains: professional work, professional space and systems of professional advancement. Boundary blurring makes symbolic boundaries more permeable, positioning lower-status actors as prospective professionals, while boundary affirming maintains social boundaries around professional membership. We identify and theorise the illusion of progression as a relational mechanism emerging from intertwined blurring and affirming, constructing lower-status roles as pathways into the profession even though progression is rare. The illusion perpetuates liminality by sustaining hope, individualising failure and undermining lower-status groups’ collective challenge to social exclusion. Our findings advance understanding of the relational mechanism through which social exclusion persists in elite professions, show how boundary blurring can sustain rather than threaten status distinctions, and help explain why organisational diversity and inclusion efforts have produced little substantive change.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2026, Society for the Advancement of Management Studies. This is the accepted manuscript of an article published by Wiley. Please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions for information on re-use.
Publisher Keywords:	professions, paraprofessionals, social exclusion, boundary work
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
Departments:	Bayes Business School Bayes Business School > Faculty of Management
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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