Buying pre-order items
Ebooks and Audiobook
You will receive an email with a download link for the ebook or audiobook on the publication date.
Payment
You will not be charged for pre-ordered books until they are available to be shipped. Pre-ordered ebooks will not be charged for until they are available for download.
Amending or cancelling your order
For orders that have not been shipped you can usually make changes to pre-orders up to 72 hours before the publishing date.
Payment for this pre-order will be taken when the item becomes available
Description
Emma Kast examines the relationship between the idea of the meritocracy and capitalism. “Free labor,” “fair trade,” and abolition affirm the humanity and freedom of individuals and the justice of equal exchange. Yet, alongside these egalitarian ideals is the rise of meritocracy, a competitive hierarchy in an individualist market order in which everyone can share in the dream of rising to the top through their own labor. Though meritocratic ideals can be viewed as emancipatory, they also affirm a “necro-economics” in which only some can succeed, while others must fail. Most work on meritocracy treats it as a twentieth century concept. In contrast, Merit and the Market: Capitalism and the Political Economy of Deservingness is the first to locate its deeper history in the writings of heterodox figures such as Adam Smith, Karl Marx, W.E.B. Du Bois, and F.A. Hayek, revealing how the notion of deservingness according to labor contribution is both embraced and challenged in the history of economic thought. Understanding how this logic of merit creates the pathologies of daily modern life helps us envision new horizons of struggle beyond the goal of a more perfect meritocracy.
Accessibility Information
Additional accessibility information
- PDF/UA-2, 1.4
- accessibility@bloomsbury.com
Hazards
The publication contains no hazards
Support for non-visual reading
Has alternative text descriptions for images
Navigation
- Page list to go to pages from the print source version
- Elements such as headings, tables, etc for structured navigation
- All or substantially all textual matter is arranged in a single logical reading order
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Liberalism and the emergence of meritocracy
Chapter 2: Socialism, the labor theory of value, and the tensions of liberalism
Chapter 3: Karl Marx and the sociality of labor
Chapter 4: W.E.B. Du Bois, racism, and meritocracy
Chapter 5: Libertarianism, value, and the ruse of merit
Conclusion
Product details
| Published | 21 Jan 2027 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (PDF) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 288 |
| ISBN | 9798216252306 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 0 |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Reviews
Related Titles
