The Rise and Rise of Meritocracy

It is now fifty years since Michael Young wrote The Rise of the Meritocracy — a sociological fantasy set in the twenty–first century and portraying a sinister, highly stratified society organised around intelligence testing and educational selection. After some difficulty getting published, it was an immediate success and became very widely read. But it does not seem to have had the influence that Michael most wanted for it, over Labour Party thinking. The story was intended to help turn Labour away from meritocracy, by reminding it of the importance of communitarian values. Curiously, though, half a century later we have a Labour Government declaring the promotion of meritocracy as one of its primary objectives.
So what is going on? This book offers a variety of opinions. Building on a conference held to mark the half–centenary of Michael Young’s Institute of Community Studies, it contains commentaries by a selection of academics, journalists and politicians, from Asa Briggs to David Willetts, on the origin, meaning and future of meritocracy.

Spis treści:
Acknowledgements.
Notes on Contributors.
Introduction: Reviewing Meritocracy: Geoff Dench.
Part I: Origin and reception.
The Labour Party as crucible: Asa Briggs.
Meritocracy in the civil service, 1853–1970: Jon Davis.
A tract for the times: Paul Barker.
We sat down at the table of privilege and complained about the food: Hilary Land.
The chequered career of a cryptic concept: Claire Donovan.
Looking back on Meritocracy: Michael Young.
Part II: Relevance to modern Britain.
A brief profile of the new British establishment: Jim Ogg.
Face, race and place: Merit and ethnic minorities: Michelynn Laflèche.
Marginalised young men: Yvonne Roberts.
The unmaking of the English working class: Ferdinand Mount.
Age and inequality: Eric Midwinter.
Ship of state in peril: Peregrine Worsthorne.
P art III: Analytic value.
The moral economy of meritocracy: Irving Louis Horowitz.
Japan at the meritocracy frontier: From here, where?: Takehiko Kariya and Ronald Dore.
Just rewards: Meritocracy fifty years later: Peter Marris.
What do we mean by talent?: Richard Sennett.
Resolving the conflict between family and meritocracy: Belinda Brown.
Meritocracy and popular legitimacy: Peter Saunders.
Part IV: The future.
The new assets agenda: Andrew Gamble and Rajiv Prabhakar.
New Labour and the withering away of the working class?: Jon Cruddas.
A delay on the road to meritocracy: Peter Wilby.
Putting social contribution back into merit: Geoff Dench.
Ladder of opportunity or engine of inequality?: Ruth Lister.
The future of meritocracy: David Willetts.
Chapter notes.
Bibliography.
Notes on Contributors.
Index.

Nota biograficzna:
Geoff Dench is a senior research fellow of the Young Foundation, and was formerly head of sociology and social policy at Middlesex University. He has written a number of books on ethnic relations and on family relationships, and edited several collections.

Okładka tylna:
It is now fifty years since Michael Young wrote The Rise of the Meritocracy — a sociological fantasy set in the twenty–first century and portraying a sinister, highly stratified society organised around intelligence testing and educational selection. After some difficulty getting published, it was an immediate success and became very widely read. But it does not seem to have had the influence that Michael most wanted for it, over Labour Party thinking. The story was intended to help turn Labour away from meritocracy, by reminding it of the importance of communitarian values. Curiously, though, half a century later we have a Labour Government declaring the promotion of meritocracy as one of its primary objectives.
So what is going on? This book offers a v ariety of opinions. Building on a conference held to mark the half–centenary of Michael Young’s Institute of Community Studies, it contains commentaries by a selection of academics, journalists and politicians, from Asa Briggs to David Willetts, on the origin, meaning and future of meritocracy.