Obrazovanje i društvena pokretljivost: mit o meritokratiji i socijalni kapital
Education And Social Mobility: Myth Of Meritocracy And Social Capital

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, entitled “Education and Social Mobility: Myth of Meritocracy and Social Capital”, some classical (functionalist) theoretical standpoints are revisited, and some newer empirical insights analyzed, all within the theoretical concept of social capital, for the purpose of sociological revision of meritocracy as an ideological construct. The essence of the myth of meritocracy is the emphasis on “equal chances” in a society in which the educational and social success is the result of abilities and individual effort. In fact, this is an ideological standpoint, which hides and rejects social and political responsibility for the factthat members of lower social classes cannot advance along the social stratification ladder. The elements of meritocracy are recognized in the functionalist theory of Parsons, as well as Davis and Moore, but, at the same time, these authors hint at some elements of social capital theory that discredit the myth of meritocracy

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