What Meritocracy Means to its Winners: Admissions, Race, and Inequality at Elite Universities in The United States and Britain
How do winners of processes of meritocracy make sense of those processes, especially in the face of forceful public critiques of their unequal outcomes? In this paper I analyze the meaning-making with respect to merit in university admissions of White, native-born undergraduates attending elite Amer...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2018-08-01
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| Series: | Social Sciences |
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| Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/7/8/131 |
| _version_ | 1811305349214371840 |
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| author | Natasha Warikoo |
| author_facet | Natasha Warikoo |
| author_sort | Natasha Warikoo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | How do winners of processes of meritocracy make sense of those processes, especially in the face of forceful public critiques of their unequal outcomes? In this paper I analyze the meaning-making with respect to merit in university admissions of White, native-born undergraduates attending elite American and British universities. I find that United States students support the “calibration” of evaluations of merit, and emphasize evaluations of applicants’ contributions to the “collective merit” of their university cohorts. British students espouse a universalist, individualist understanding of merit. While conceptions of merit differed across national contexts, students in both reproduced the notions of merit espoused by their universities. I conclude that in spite of a long history of student protest on college campuses, rather than engagement with symbolic politics on liberal-identified campuses, self-interest in status legitimation dominates student perspectives, ultimately reproducing understandings of merit that will reproduce inequality. The paper draws upon 98 one-on-one in-depth interviews with White, native-born undergraduates attending Harvard University, Brown University, and University of Oxford. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T08:24:51Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b03b7f090c7d4508be056565019d2740 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-0760 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T08:24:51Z |
| publishDate | 2018-08-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Social Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-b03b7f090c7d4508be056565019d27402022-12-22T02:54:32ZengMDPI AGSocial Sciences2076-07602018-08-017813110.3390/socsci7080131socsci7080131What Meritocracy Means to its Winners: Admissions, Race, and Inequality at Elite Universities in The United States and BritainNatasha Warikoo0Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USAHow do winners of processes of meritocracy make sense of those processes, especially in the face of forceful public critiques of their unequal outcomes? In this paper I analyze the meaning-making with respect to merit in university admissions of White, native-born undergraduates attending elite American and British universities. I find that United States students support the “calibration” of evaluations of merit, and emphasize evaluations of applicants’ contributions to the “collective merit” of their university cohorts. British students espouse a universalist, individualist understanding of merit. While conceptions of merit differed across national contexts, students in both reproduced the notions of merit espoused by their universities. I conclude that in spite of a long history of student protest on college campuses, rather than engagement with symbolic politics on liberal-identified campuses, self-interest in status legitimation dominates student perspectives, ultimately reproducing understandings of merit that will reproduce inequality. The paper draws upon 98 one-on-one in-depth interviews with White, native-born undergraduates attending Harvard University, Brown University, and University of Oxford.http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/7/8/131meritocracyadmissionsaffirmative actionraceUnited StatesBritain |
| spellingShingle | Natasha Warikoo What Meritocracy Means to its Winners: Admissions, Race, and Inequality at Elite Universities in The United States and Britain Social Sciences meritocracy admissions affirmative action race United States Britain |
| title | What Meritocracy Means to its Winners: Admissions, Race, and Inequality at Elite Universities in The United States and Britain |
| title_full | What Meritocracy Means to its Winners: Admissions, Race, and Inequality at Elite Universities in The United States and Britain |
| title_fullStr | What Meritocracy Means to its Winners: Admissions, Race, and Inequality at Elite Universities in The United States and Britain |
| title_full_unstemmed | What Meritocracy Means to its Winners: Admissions, Race, and Inequality at Elite Universities in The United States and Britain |
| title_short | What Meritocracy Means to its Winners: Admissions, Race, and Inequality at Elite Universities in The United States and Britain |
| title_sort | what meritocracy means to its winners admissions race and inequality at elite universities in the united states and britain |
| topic | meritocracy admissions affirmative action race United States Britain |
| url | http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/7/8/131 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT natashawarikoo whatmeritocracymeanstoitswinnersadmissionsraceandinequalityateliteuniversitiesintheunitedstatesandbritain |