From the Meritocratic Illusion to the Notion of Social Equity in Working Class

MULERAS EDNA

Toronto

Congreso; XIX ISA WORLD CONGRESS OF SOCIOLOGY Power, Violence, justice: reflections, responses. responsabilities; 2018

International Sociological Association Faculty of Political Sciences and Sociology University Complutense

Is social equity still a substantive value for working class in our contemporarysocieties? Is social inequality observed by those who suffer its consequences?Which is the conception of social justice that prevails when evaluating their ownsituation? A meritocratic conception according to which the situation is exclusivelyattributed to individual responsibility? Or a distributive conception that presentspersonal situation as restricted by unequal conditions, rights and developmentpossibilities among social classes? Diverse conceptions of social justice wereempirically surveyed in an exploratory research on working class moral identity,in Argentina, in the last years (2010 -2015). The study offers valuable clues toanalyze some of the preconditions of the electoral success of the new neoliberalgovernments in the region, even though they drive structural changes which affectthe extension of rights previously achieved by working class. We have identifiedsome of the factors that provide the acceptance and moral justification of currentpolicies, despite they lead to a progressive worsening in workers´social situation.A meritocratic conception of social justice reinforces an atomized working class.It is an epistemological obstacle to observe the interrelation of actions in socialorder. Workers are made responsible for their low wages, the unemployedfor their dismissals and the poor for their poverty. Either accussing workersof low productivity, inefficiency, corruption, etc., as individual faults neededto be sanctioned,or explaining welfare acquired in the past as an excessive orundeserved prize. It promotes an ideological normalization of class inequalityand it offers utopian resolutions by deceptive means in an always imprecisefuture. The conceptualization of social equity is a result of a complex stage inhuman reflection on social order. It urgently demands democratic, autonomousand participatory cooperation in the production and distribution of material andsymbolic resources socially generated.