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Class inequality and meritocracy: a critique of Saunders and an alternative analysis 1
Author(s) -
Breen Richard,
Goldthorpe John H.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
the british journal of sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.826
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1468-4446
pISSN - 0007-1315
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-4446.1999.00001.x
Subject(s) - meritocracy , inequality , class (philosophy) , set (abstract data type) , positive economics , sociology , epistemology , political science , economics , mathematics , law , computer science , philosophy , mathematical analysis , programming language
Saunders' recent work claiming that contemporary British society is to a large extent ‘meritocratic’ is criticized on conceptual and technical grounds. A reanalysis of the National Child Development Study data‐set, used by Saunders, is presented. This reveals that while merit, defined in terms of ability and effort, does play a part in determining individuals' class destinations, the effect of class origins remains strong. Children of less advantaged class origins need to show substantially more merit than children from more advantaged origins in order to gain similar class positions. These differences in findings to some extent arise from the correction of biases introduced by Saunders; but there are also features of his own results, consistent with those reported in the reanalysis, which he appears not to have fully appreciated.