Meritocracy, social mobility and a new form of class domination

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Meritocracy, social mobility and a new form of class domination

Jin, J; Ball, SJ; (2020) Meritocracy, social mobility and a new form of class domination. British Journal of Sociology of Education , 41 (1) pp. 64-79. 10.1080/01425692.2019.1665496. Green open access

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Abstract

Meritocracy is used by governments in many societies as an ‘effective’ way to represent social justice and legitimise – explain away – class inequality. By focusing on a small number of working-class students who achieve academic ‘success’ and have reached elite universities in an ideal meritocratic environment – Chinese schooling – this paper aims to discuss the relation of meritocracy to upward social mobility and class domination. Our analysis raises questions about the notion of ‘success’ in a meritocratic environment and suggests the operation of a new form of symbolic domination in relation to these working-class high-achievers. Through their ‘successes’ at school, they are distanced from their working-class localities and histories, while they also remain outside of the middle-class sensibilities that they aspire to – they become a ‘third class’ whose core values reside in meritocracy itself. There is no transcendence of class here rather a different form of distinction and exclusion.

Type:	Article
Title:	Meritocracy, social mobility and a new form of class domination
Open access status:	An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI:	10.1080/01425692.2019.1665496
Publisher version:	https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2019.1665496
Language:	English
Additional information:	This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords:	meritocracy, social mobility, Bourdieu, working-class students at elite universities, China
UCL classification:	UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Education, Practice and Society
URI:	https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10083065