Allison Hurst - “Defying Meritocracy: The Case of the Working-Class

Book chapter

Allison L. Hurst
Paul R. Carr, Julie Gorlewski, Brad J. Porfilio, Paul L Thomas, Social Context Reform: A Pedagogy of Equity and Opportunity, Routledge, 2014

link to book

Cite

APA Click to copy
Hurst, A. L. (2014). “Defying Meritocracy: The Case of the Working-Class College Student" In P. R. Carr, J. Gorlewski, B. J. Porfilio, & P. L. Thomas (Eds.), Social Context Reform: A Pedagogy of Equity and Opportunity. Routledge.

Chicago/Turabian Click to copy
Hurst, Allison L. “‘Defying Meritocracy: The Case of the Working-Class College Student&Quot;” In Social Context Reform: A Pedagogy of Equity and Opportunity, edited by Paul R. Carr, Julie Gorlewski, Brad J. Porfilio, and Paul L Thomas. Routledge, 2014.

MLA Click to copy
Hurst, Allison L. “‘Defying Meritocracy: The Case of the Working-Class College Student&Quot;” Social Context Reform: A Pedagogy of Equity and Opportunity, edited by Paul R. Carr et al., Routledge, 2014.

BibTeX Click to copy

@inbook{allison2014a,
  title = {“Defying Meritocracy: The Case of the Working-Class College Student"},
  year = {2014},
  publisher = {Routledge},
  author = {Hurst, Allison L.},
  editor = {Carr, Paul R. and Gorlewski, Julie and Porfilio, Brad J. and Thomas, Paul L},
  booktitle = {Social Context Reform: A Pedagogy of Equity and Opportunity}
}

The term "meritocracy" was coined in 1958 by Michael Young, a British sociologist active in the Labour Party. It was key to his dystopian satire The Rise of the Meritocracy, in which one's place in society was a result of intelligence and ambition. Young intended this book as a serious critique of the shift away from egalitarian values, although most who read and who used the term afterwards took it as a blueprint for a desirable future. In this chapter, I sought to explain what was similarly wrong with championing working-class scholars, especially when they were being encouraged to leave their communities behind. You could almost say this was an early critique of the creation of J.D. Vances.
As one of the more colorfully astute students I interviewed explained, "I don't see a cerrtificate automatically making someone anything... So you can hold up your degree and you shouldn't be knocked for it, but it doesn't mean that you are better than the guy holding the shovel over there. I mean, no way. Because that guy over there, he is probably a lot funnier and better to be around than you!"