Meritocracy from below: dreams, divisions, and the struggle for merit in a stigmatised neighbourhood

Anthony Miro Born

City, 2025, vol. 29, issue 3-4, 438-458

Abstract: The ideal of a meritocratic society continues to exert significant normative power in political and public discourse, including in discussions about marginalised spaces and neighbourhoods. However, many urban scholars have been reluctant to critically engage with the normative assumptions underpinning the meritocratic ideal. Researchers working within neoclassical urban economics and positivist urban sociology, in particular, have often embraced and reproduced the notion of a more meritocratic society as a noble, if not inherently obvious and ordinary, ideal. This article argues for a critical understanding of meritocracy among urban researchers by exploring the consequences of how this ideal is internalised and reproduced in marginalised spaces. Through empirical research conducted in a stigmatised neighbourhood in Germany, I examine how meritocratic narratives contribute to sharp divisions among residents and hinder collective action. However, this does not mean that confronting the meritocratic ideal is impossible.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13604813.2025.2512625 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:cityxx:v:29:y:2025:i:3-4:p:438-458

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CCIT20

DOI: 10.1080/13604813.2025.2512625

Access Statistics for this article

City is currently edited by Bob Catterall

More articles in City from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().