In Response to the Editorial for the BJSW 54(4), <i>Lived versus Living Experience</i> by Dominic Watters

Abstract In applying the concept of living experience to widening participation in higher education, a process of ‘consumption’ that creates profit for powerholders is discussed—while championing social mobility, the widening participation agenda has done little to address the long-standing social and economic inequalities of British society. Yet, through this process, a ‘sector’ of higher education built upon neoliberal principles has been created. Pushing back against the systems of metrification that threaten education’s authenticity, I propose that powerholders apply ethnographic research methods to their decision-making processes.