The Meaning of Merit: Talent versus Hard Work Legitimacy.
Elites often use merit to explain, justify, and make sense of their advantaged positions. But what exactly do they mean by this? In this paper, we draw on 71 interviews with elites in Denmark and the UK to compare self-justifications of meritocratic legitimacy. Our results indicate that while elites...
| Publicado en: | Social Forces Vol. 102; no. 3; pp. 861 - 880 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Oxford University Press / USA
Mar2024
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=174979312&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 174979312 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00377732 SFR jtl: Social Forces issn: 00377732 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Mar2024 vid: 102 iid: 3 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 174979312 10.1093/sf/soad131 ppf: 861 ppct: 19 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 417KB tig: atl: The Meaning of Merit: Talent versus Hard Work Legitimacy. aug: au: Friedman, Sam Ellersgaard, Christoph Reeves, Aaron Larsen, Anton Grau affil: London School of Economics Copenhagen Business School University of Oxford Roskilde University su: Denmark United Kingdom Elite (Social sciences) Civil society Academic ability sug: subj: Elite (Social sciences) Civil society Denmark United Kingdom Academic ability ab: Elites often use merit to explain, justify, and make sense of their advantaged positions. But what exactly do they mean by this? In this paper, we draw on 71 interviews with elites in Denmark and the UK to compare self-justifications of meritocratic legitimacy. Our results indicate that while elites in both countries are united by a common concern to frame their merits as spontaneously recognized by others (rather than strategically promoted by themselves), the package of attributes they foreground vary significantly. In the UK, elites tend to be "talent meritocrats" who foreground their unique capacity for ideational creativity or risk taking, innately good judgment, and "natural" aptitude, intelligence, or academic ability. In contrast, in Denmark, elites are more likely to be "hard work meritocrats" who emphasize their unusual work ethic, extensive experience (as a signal of accumulated hard work), and contributions outside of work, particularly in civil society. We tentatively argue that one explanation for this cross-national variation is the role that different channels of elite recruitment play in amplifying legitimate notions of merit. In the UK, for example, elite private schools act to nurture ideas of exceptionalism and natural talent, whereas in Denmark elite employers socialize the connection between hard work and success. These findings suggest that nationally specific understandings of merit can have quite different implications for the legitimation of inequality. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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