Questioning the Meritocratic Strategy. Analysing academic and professional trajectories in the region of San Sebastian

Abstract

The qualitative research on academic and professional trajectories is a very significant field to analyse meritocracy. The meritocratic strategy plays a main roll in the education system and affects the working conditions, but it is also related to the strategies of families and the dynamics of individuals. Meritocracy claims that stratification is exclusively based on individual merits. However, this paper criticises the meritocratic strategy, and proposes a different perspective: four social institutions (individual, family, education and employment) are intermingled in the construction of individual social positions. A complex net of power relationships conditions the conflict between these social institutions.