TY - JOUR
T1 - Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School by Shamus Khan. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, [2011]2021. The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? by Michael J. Sandel. London: Penguin, [2020]2021.
AU - Maclean, M
PY - 2024/9/1
Y1 - 2024/9/1
N2 - Socioeconomic inequalities are attracting increasing attention from business and management scholars (Amis, Mair, & Munir, 2020; Bapuji, Ertug, & Shaw, 2020). Given the focus of the present Special Issue on how management education and learning might contribute to exacerbating or attenuating these, it seems opportune to consider two recent landmark monographs which both address socioeconomic inequalities in different ways. In The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?, political philosopher Michael J. Sandel ([2020]2021), Professor of Government Theory at Harvard, shows how the meaning of merit has evolved in recent decades. Ruling elites, Sandel suggests, have profited from globalization while disempowering ordinary citizens by robbing them of the dignity of work. Relatedly, in Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School, sociologist Shamus Khan ([2011]2021), Professor of Sociology and American Studies at Princeton, asserts that, even as principles of openness and access are embraced in terms of race and gender, this has not created a more equitable society. On the contrary, attendance at an elite school obscures the advantages that the privileged are born into.
AB - Socioeconomic inequalities are attracting increasing attention from business and management scholars (Amis, Mair, & Munir, 2020; Bapuji, Ertug, & Shaw, 2020). Given the focus of the present Special Issue on how management education and learning might contribute to exacerbating or attenuating these, it seems opportune to consider two recent landmark monographs which both address socioeconomic inequalities in different ways. In The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?, political philosopher Michael J. Sandel ([2020]2021), Professor of Government Theory at Harvard, shows how the meaning of merit has evolved in recent decades. Ruling elites, Sandel suggests, have profited from globalization while disempowering ordinary citizens by robbing them of the dignity of work. Relatedly, in Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School, sociologist Shamus Khan ([2011]2021), Professor of Sociology and American Studies at Princeton, asserts that, even as principles of openness and access are embraced in terms of race and gender, this has not created a more equitable society. On the contrary, attendance at an elite school obscures the advantages that the privileged are born into.
U2 - 10.5465/amle.2024.0213
DO - 10.5465/amle.2024.0213
M3 - Book/Film/Article review
SN - 1537-260X
VL - 23
SP - 451
EP - 453
JO - Academy of Management, Learning and Education
JF - Academy of Management, Learning and Education
IS - 3
ER -