CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Costa, Maria Olival |
|---|---|
| Title | Meritocracy as a policy tool: An enabler and legitimizer of policy makers' inactions |
| Summary | This article seeks to offer a critique of the meritocratic speech, looking at the contradiction between Meritocracy and Equality of Opportunity in Brazil, regarding access to education. The analysis is divided in two sections. In the first, it goes through the pillars of the meritocratic discourse, which informs narratives about ascension and prestige in our society. The paper continues with the pillars of the theory of Equality of Opportunity, which assumes the same treatment to all individuals, pointing to a contradiction in the theory and practice considering the Brazilian context. The article then explores the effects of the Knowledge Society and the importance of education in this society. Reflecting on the effects of the meritocratic discourse opposed to the lack of access of vulnerable populations, the article confronts the narrative of equal opportunities and discusses how it produces the invisibility of structural social inequalities, internalizing them in individuals as success or failure. |
| Supervisor | Zentai, Violetta and Borge, Frank Wietzke |
| Department | Public Policy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/costa_maria.pdf |
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