Brendan Ciarán Browne In the ‘post-conflict’ arena of Northern Ireland, escaping the legacy of the past is nigh on impossible. Gable [...]
Read more
Re-imagining the Sovereign: an indigenous case study in citizenship, self-determination and democratic inclusivity
Dominic O’Sullivan In 1840 the British Crown and the Chiefs of the United Tribes of New Zealand signed a Treaty giving [...]
Read more
Good and bad people, or what vested interests are not about
Michael Egerer In the name of problem-gambling prevention, the Finnish Ministry of the Interior has planned to introduce mandatory identification at [...]
Read more
Considering Age, Appearance, and Beauty
Naomi Woodspring There is a cacophony of voices telling us about appearance – how we should look or, what the way [...]
Read more
FOCUS: Merit and Meritocracy
Anselma Gallinat, Lisa Garforth and Geoff Payne 2018 marks the 60th anniversary of Michael Young’s The Rise of the Meritocracy, which [...]
Read more
VIEWPOINT: The Rise of the Meritocracy: on speculation and sociology
Lisa Garforth Michael Young’s The Rise of the Meritocracy is now mainly remembered for popularizing the idea it critiques. The book’s [...]
Read more
On The Frontline: Everyday Privilege: Some Reflections on Meritocracy in Higher Education
Ruth Graham Thinking about how the concept of meritocracy relates to contemporary times gave me an opportunity to reflect on what [...]
Read more
Policy and Politics: Coping with communicative plenty
Selen A. Ercan, Carolyn M. Hendriks, John S. Dryzek This section of Discover Society is provided in collaboration with the journal, Policy [...]
Read more
The Birth of Meritocracy: Michael Young, The Rise of the Meritocracy and Post-War British Politics
David Civil During the summer of 1957 the British sociologist Michael Young was holidaying on a beach in North Wales. He [...]
Read more
The ‘Gift’ of Meritocracy: The Rise (and Fall?) of the Academies Programme.
Kirsty Morrin It is now often forgotten that Michael Young’s The Rise of the Meritocracy deployed ‘meritocracy’ as a pejorative term. [...]
Read more