New article published in journal 'Comparative Sociology'
20. November 2020
The article "Legitimizing Inequality - The Moral Repertoires of Meritocracy in Four Countries" has now been published by the journal 'Comparative Sociology'. In the article, Jan-Ocko Heuer (University of Bremen), Thomas Lux (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Steffen Mau (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), and Katharina Zimmermann (University of Hamburg) pursue a mixed methods approach to ecross-country differences in the conception of meritocracy.
DOI: 10.1163/15691330-bja10017
Abstract:
Do people in different countries understand and frame the principle of meritocracy differently? This question is the starting point for this cross-national analysis of the moral repertoires of meritocracy in four countries: Germany, Norway, Slovenia and the United Kingdom. The authors pursue a mixed methods approach, using data from the European Social Survey 2016 and qualitative data from group discussions. In these discussions, citizens openly talked about issues like inequality and social policy, which allows us to study their understandings and framings of meritocracy. The authors show that the issue of unequal rewards does not only find different levels of support, but also that people – corresponding to the context they live in – have different understandings of which merits should count. The authors identify a ‘market success meritocracy’ in the UK, a work-centred understanding in Germany, a ‘common good meritocracy’ in Norway, and non-salience of this issue in Slovenia.