Download full text
(134.8Kb)
Citation Suggestion
Please use the following Persistent Identifier (PID) to cite this document:
https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-95397-5
Exports for your reference manager
Merit and ressentiment: How to tackle the tyranny of merit
[journal article]
Abstract My contribution to this special issue engages with Michael Sandel's The Tyranny of Meritocracy and its significance to the academic conversation about meritocracy and its discontents. Specifically, I highlight Sandel’s diagnosis of the rise of populism and his proposed remedy for the 'tyranny of mer... view more
My contribution to this special issue engages with Michael Sandel's The Tyranny of Meritocracy and its significance to the academic conversation about meritocracy and its discontents. Specifically, I highlight Sandel’s diagnosis of the rise of populism and his proposed remedy for the 'tyranny of merit'. First, building on Menno ter Braak's writings on the rise of fascism, I explore the sources of ressentiment in contemporary societies as stemming not from disillusionment with meritocracy but from the broken promise of liberalism and democracy more generally. Second, I consider Sandel's proposals to reform elite university admissions and to 'recognize work', explore their wider applicability, and reflect on their limitations to meaningfully change how success and failure is socially experienced and morally understood.... view less
Keywords
ISSP; achievement; inequality; meritocracy; populism; segregation; fascism
Classification
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Political System, Constitution, Government
Free Keywords
ressentiment; ISSP 1987-1992-1999-2009
Document language
English
Publication Year
2022
Page/Pages
p. 173-181
Journal
Theory and Research in Education, 20 (2022) 2
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/14778785221106837
ISSN
1741-3192
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed