A Cultural History of Meritocracy and Social Mobility, 1850-1975

• Applicant: Dr. Alexander Mayer
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 490850329

The view that social inequalities are primarily based on individual merit is one of the most important sources of legitimacy in modern societies. This research project explores how meritocratic ideas spread among the working and lower middle classes. More specifically, it will show how people came to beliefe that they themselves or their children might improve their social position by their own effort and how such expectations shaped people‘s behaviour. Adopting a practice-theoretical approach, the project will study how everyday practices, habitual attitudes as well as institutions and material conditions promoted or inhibited practices of social advancement. In order to explore the effects of industrialisation, the project will cover a period that begins in the middle of the 19th century. The change of ideas and practices will be followed into the 1970s when expectations that linked social advancement to secondary and tertiary education presumably became widely established following occupational change and educational expansion. Autobiographical writings and transcripts of oral history interviews from four birth cohorts will be used as main sources. Geographically, the focus will be on the German-speaking countries. This research project aims to contribute to current discussions about meritocracy by showing how expectations of advancement through merit emerged, spread, and shaped people’s lives. It might broaden the debate by showing how notions of upward mobility and practices of social advancement are subject to historical change. The view 'from below' will illuminate why meritocractic ideas seemed plausible and attractive to people from disadvantaged social groups.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants