Onderwijs in de symbolische samenleving. Zijn individualisme en meritocratie nog zinvol?

Samenvatting

Education in a symbolic society. Are individualism and meritocracy still tenable? Over the past decade meritocratic ideals and the conviction that modern societies are individualising have often guided educational policy. This article argues that the individualisation theory is highly misleading, and that the meritocratic ideal becomes dysfunctional. It proposes to replace individualisation and detraditionalization theories by the notion of a symbolic society. This society’s mode of social control gives the individual ample room for choice and decision, but tries to determine the choices by way of extensive socialisation and influence, performed and exerted by schools, mass media, advertisement and propaganda. Because of the important role of schools, life chances are strongly dependent on the level and kind of education, while the shift in the mode of social control puts more emphasis on personal responsibility. Because of these joint developments the meritocratic ideal is called upon to justify inequalities which it can no longer legitimate.