Comment on Chambliss's "The Mundanity of Excellence"

Abstract

Chambliss's (1988) article is strongly oriented the task of reconceptualizing talent in ways that make it accessible study. He has attempted shift the conceptual underpinnings of talent from the realm of internal states and traits the realm of external practices and behaviors, and he has done so in ways that reveal talent be a useless concept. This is certainly an important achievement, and it is on these grounds that Chambliss's article has justifiably been praised (see Kaplan 1989). Yet, my mind, Chambliss's preoccupation with undermining the notion of talent deflects attention from the more general explanation of stratification which he cites as one of the major purposes of his article. My comment, then, consists of the following: excellence, not merely talent, is a meaningless concept; Chambliss acknowledges this point but fails develop its theoretical implications for a general theory of stratification. As a result, we learn more about swimming than about stratification. In other words, Chambliss's piece contains an unresolved tension between his discussion of the mundane bases of how to succeed in