ABSTRACT
This book began by discussing conceptions of social justice in relation to educational inequality. Whilst quite radical standpoints on redistribution and equality of outcome are possible, a political consensus has emerged around the idea of equality of opportunity. This standpoint is reinforced theoretically by two related discourses, of liberal-industrial theory and meritocracy. The first asserts that social achievement will, and the second asserts that it should, move towards greater universalism, in which allocation to social positions occurs on the basis of rationality and economic efficiency. Observed patterns of educational and social opportunity, however, show that a more complex analysis is required than to simply assert or deny progress towards universalism. This concluding chapter begins by identifying the structural components of meritocracy and evaluating their claims in relation to the quantitative evidence discussed in earlier chapters. It then considers two aspects of the theoretical perspectives that form the other major strand of the book: their substantive contribution to the evaluation of meritocratic claims and other attempts to reconcile social inequality with social justice; and their respective contributions as theory to understanding how educational inequality is produced. In the course of this discussion, the possibility of a theoretical synthesis involving rational action and cultural reproduction approaches is critiqued. The chapter concludes by briefly reviewing some of the omissions of the book and how they might affect its conclusions.
