Education and equality:Debunking the myth of meritocracy

Themelis, Spyros ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6681-4643 (2017) Education and equality:Debunking the myth of meritocracy. Educação & Formação, 2 (4). pp. 3-17. ISSN 2448-3583

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Abstract

This article explores how in the postwar years education was constructed as the main way in which a meritocratic society could be created in Britain (but also elsewhere). The concept of meritocracy, that is to say of a just society in which equality of opportunities and education for all, would ostensibly provide the basis with which labor market allocation would be realized. As this article argues, nothing in education operates outside the wider political economy, which in capitalism is inherently unequal as it is underpinned by the existence of antagonistically opposed social classes, separated from each other by unequal access to the means of production. As such, the circulation in the British social system that occurred in the early postwar years was not the result of decreasing inequalities within the class structure but rather the product of the occupational restructuring that fostered high rates of structural mobility. Consequently, “ascription” rather than “ability” continued to facilitate labor market stratification.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	education,capitalism,equality,labour market
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Education and Lifelong Learning
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Research in Higher Education and Society
Related URLs:	http://seer.uece.br/?journal=Redufor&pag...
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	22 Apr 2017 05:09
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2022 02:33
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/63279
DOI:	10.25053/edufor.v2i4.2375

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