Disentangling Meritocracy Among the Long-Range Upwardly Mobile: The Chilean Case

Abstract

In a world of rising income and wealth inequalities, studying popular concern or consent about inequality, social mobility and meritocracy is increasingly relevant. However, while there is growing body of research on the explanations individuals provide for inequality in the US and Europe, there is a striking absence of studies addressing how people experiencing long-range upward mobility relate to meritocratic values in Latin American societies. In this article I draw upon on 60 life-course interviews to examine how long-range upwardly mobile individuals – those who best embody the meritocratic ideal – explain their success in Chilean society. Internationally well-known for the implementation of radical neoliberal reforms since the mid 1970s, Chile has both elevated levels of inequality and high rates of occupational mobility. Contrary to the individual-centred approach to meritocratic success dominant in the existing literature, my findings reveal a strong collective framing in respondents’ accounts and the acknowledgement of external factors shaping their upward trajectories. These findings bear important conceptual, methodological and geographical implications for the future study of social mobility and meritocratic values.

Students’ Perceptions of Excellence in Chilean High-Performing Public Schools

“…Chile has fostered the creation of HPPS. These schools have a long tradition of excellence and a strong anchorage in the republican ideals (Fercovic, 2020). They represent the main path to elite universities and to the main social positions of power and prestige (Serrano, et al, 2012).…”

Percepciones Sociales de los Estudiantes de Educación Superior de Élite: Un Estudio del Caso Chileno

“…De todas formas, estos resultados permiten profundizar en el conocimiento de la educación superior de élite y el estudio de las percepciones, a lo menos desde tres perspectivas. En primer lugar, los resultados presentan diferencias interesantes respecto de las percepciones sociales del conjunto de la población (Frei et al, 2020) o de las percepciones de los miembros actuales de la élite (Fercovic, 2022), lo que podría estar mostrando cambios en las visiones del mundo compartidas por este grupo, aunque este es un hallazgo a profundizar en próximos estudios. En segundo lugar, aunque la bifurcación encontrada entre las percepciones de los estudiantes de instituciones de élite tradicionales y no tradicionales es sistemática, este estudio no profundiza en el mecanismo específico que la produce.…”

The price of the ticket revised: Family members’ experiences of upward social mobility

“…In doing so, they offer an empirically sensitive and politically committed analysis of social-space travel and its gendered and racialised dimensions (Cole & Omari, 2003; Curl et al, 2018; Friedman, 2022; Ingram, 2011; Lawler, 1999; Mallman, 2017a; Morton, 2019; Walkerdine, 2003). Moreover, a growing body of research beyond the context of the UK and USA has shed light on how these experiences and meaning-making processes play out in different international settings (Álvarez-Rivadulla et al, 2023; Born, 2023; Burns et al, 2023; Fercovic, 2022; Jin & Ball, 2020; Naudet, 2018; Schneider et al, 2022; Shahrokni, 2018; Sohl, 2018).…”

“…One of these is the question of whether and how individual class mobility can be seen as a ‘triumph’ for more than just the upwardly mobile individuals themselves. Despite its competitive and individualistic ethos (Littler, 2018; Sandel, 2020), a growing body of empirical work with upwardly mobile respondents indicates that individual social mobility can be associated with ‘collective roots and benefits’ (Shahrokni, 2018, p. 1175) and understood as an ‘intergenerational family project’ (Fercovic, 2022, p. 125; see also Rondini, 2016). But how do family members, and in particular parents, perceive the fact that their offspring has moved ‘up’ and ‘out’?…”

“…In recent years, there have been revived sociological debates on how to assess the consequences and lived experience of upward social mobility. Against today's political climate of celebratory 'social mobility talk' (for a critique, see Ingram & Gamsu, 2022;Littler, 2018;Payne, 2017), a growing body of qualitative research has understood the trajectories of social mobility as ambivalent, complex and often bumpy experiences, rather than being smooth and straightforwardly beneficial (Cole & Omari, 2003;Curl et al, 2018;Fercovic, 2022;Ingram, 2011;Lawler, 1999;Mallman, 2017a;Morton, 2019;Walkerdine, 2003). In particular, authors such as Reay (2013Reay ( , 2018 and Friedman (2014Friedman ( , 2016 have focused on 'the price of the ticket' and called for a 're-examination of the mobility experience'.…”