Diskurser om breddad rekrytering : Analys av några offentliga texter

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study is to investigate the discourses of widening recruitment to higher education in some political documents from the 21st century. The scientific method applied is critical discourse analysis as developed by Norman Fairclough. This implies the analyses of the actual texts, the social practice as well as the discursive practice, i.e. the conditions under which the texts are produced, distributed and consumed. The major results include four discourses: a post-modern discourse, a neoliberal economic discourse, a political discourse of multi-culturalism and a modern discourse with its roots in the 20th century’s discussions about social imbalance in recruitment to higher education. The material shows a discursive struggle between ways of constructing widening recruitment and underrepresented groups, as well as the hegemonic, implicit conviction that higher education is advantegous.