Personal Merit Research Articles

Strong Scientific Meritocratism: Standpoint Epistemology as a Middle Ground in the Debate over Personal Merit in Science

Abstract Dorian Abbot and twenty-eight coauthors from many quarters of science have recently published a spirited defense of a perceived ‘liberal’ scientific meritocratism—roughly the view that rivalrous or excludable goods in the sphere of scientific work should be distributed entirely based on potential recipients’ merits in that sphere. They propose to understand merit in terms of ‘achievements,’ not least in the form of individual academic track records. A closer examination of their argument reveals their implicit reliance on several incompatible conceptions of merit. Moreover, they conspicuously ignore the typical collective nature of academic achievements in modern science. In this paper, I argue that a different version of scientific meritocratism, based on the central theses of standpoint epistemology, represents an attractive compromise between Abbot et al. and anti-meritocratic theories informed by the sociology of science. Ultimately, however, the credentials of this ‘strong scientific meritocratism’ rest on empirical hypotheses which remain underexamined.

Стереотипы межконфессиональных взаимодействий сибиряков

The successful term “stereotype” was substantiated by the journalist W. Lippman and became firmly established in scientific use. Researchers have studied the processes of stereotypes functioning. This is an important part ofthe collective consciousness, protecting a person from unfamiliar information. Stereotypes help save time and life resources for processing new information. But the negative side of stereotypes lies in the creation of mental templates for the perception of reality. It is easier for a group to simplify information than to waste time understanding the essence of another’s otherness. Information that contradicts stereotypical patterns is ignored, simplified, and distorted in terms of content. “We-group” begins to aggressively defend the meanings of its stereotypes from an alternative opinion. The opponent can be subjected to harassment and physical destruction. The structure of stereotypes and scenarios of stereotyping are considered by us from the standpoint of structuralism. “We-group” is socially differentiated. For extras and dominant members of the group, the rules of the social game are written. The meaning of the stereotype can turn into a tool for managing citizens, into a weapon against members of the “they-group”. The spontaneous part of the process of stereotyping lies in the routine existence of stereotypes, with the help of which people explain the complex phenomena of life. It is a routine practice of inventing and reinforcing language clichés. The manageable part of stereotyping is the use of these clichés for political gain. “We-group” is always in a state of stereotypical attitude. The group can choose a stereotyping scenario – a scenario of tolerant neighborhood or a scenario of negative solidarity. The first determines the path of development of a tolerant attitude towards non-Christians, the search for new knowledge about the culture of “outsiders”, the development of practices of new socio-cultural experience. The second is the way of intensifying intercultural and interfaith tension, leading to armed conflicts. The reason for interfaith conflicts is the use of creeds for personal gain. At the everyday level, conflicts arise due to cultural incompetence, the simplification of knowledge about the culture of “strangers”. In Siberia, despite the existence of stereotypes, interfaith relations are peaceful. This is emphasized by the heroes of in-depth interviews representing different confessions. Their perception of non-Christian neighbors is based on an understanding of personal merit, and not on a stereotyped understanding. Spiritual leaders confirm the idea of intercultural rapprochement of Siberians as members of a multi-confessional community. Tolerance is a social practice of neighborhood that develops the spiritual sphere of community life.

LOOKING AT THE MODEL OF "PERSONAL BRANDING" OF PROPHET YUSUF ‘ALAIHISSALAM IN THE QUR'AN BASED ON PETER MONTOYA'S PERSPECTIVE: SEMANTIC ANALYSIS STUDY

Highlighting one's own strengths to the general public both directly and indirectly is often termed personal branding. This term is used to build people's positive perception of personal merit. This has been done by the Prophets, one of which is Prophet Yusuf ‘alaihissalam as the verses in Surat Yusuf. The purpose of this study is to find out the personal branding model according to Peter Montoya's theory conducted by Prophet Yusuf ‘alaihissalam based on Yusuf Verse. Research with this type of qualitative is in the form of library research using content analysis in the form of Surat Yusuf in the Qur'an then analyzed descriptively to obtain conclusions. The results of this study show that Prophet Yusuf ‘alaihissalam brands himself as a dream taker, and a person who is good at keeping again knowledgeable. To strengthen his personal branding, Allah the Exalted shows many advantages including having a handsome face, justifying the results of his supervision, and making people rank in the Egyptian state at that time. The branding carried out by Prophet Yusuf himself and by Allah through His kalam shows according to Peter Montoya's personal branding principles, specialization, leadership, personality, distinctiveness, visibility, unity, persistence, and goodwill.

Transformation of the image of Baba Yaga performed by George Millar in the films of Alexander Rowe

The image of Baba Yaga in the folk culture of the ancient Slavs is considered as an object of research in this work. As an important part of folk culture, Russian folk tales take upon themselves the responsibility to broadcast traditional moral qualities and form the basis of a person's evaluative and emotional attitude to the world. The subject of the study is the transformation and interpretation of the image of Baba Yaga performed by the People's Artist of the RSFSR Georgy Millar in the film tales directed by Alexander Rowe. The authors set a goal to identify specific features in the interpretations of the image of Baba Yaga by George Millar and to identify the typology of these images. The methodological basis of the article is content analysis, comparative, statistical, historical and cultural analysis of the films narrator Alexander Rowe. The authors, when considering the problem, achieve the following results: Georgy Millar starred in 16 Alexander Rowe's fairy tales, while performing 27 roles; he played Baba Yaga in 4 fairy tales; only the first is the canonical image, the other three images are the personal merit of Georgy Millar. In the process of developing the problem, the authors identify comparative criteria of Baba Yaga images: external features, behavioral characteristics, character traits. The novelty of the research consists in the unconventionality of the indicated approach, as well as in a comprehensive analysis of the palette of creative possibilities of actor Georgy Millar. As a result of the study, the authors come to the following conclusions: 1) the centuries-old image of Baba Yaga is very complex and often contradictory, so it can be transformed and interpreted; 2) Georgy Millar created 4 different images of the same character - Baba Yaga "Witch", Baba Yaga "Old Housewife", Baba Yaga "Mother" and Baba Yaga "The lady."

UM HOMEM BRASILEIRO BRANCO TRADUZINDO POEMAS DE POETAS AFRO-AMERICANAS: A TRADUÇÃO DO AFETO, (DES)ENCONTROS, INTEREXISTÊNCIA E O AFETO DA TRADUÇÃO

ABSTRACT In this article, I elaborate on the awareness that, as a White man, my materiality takes part in a socioeconomic and political system that, regardless of personal merit, benefits me, unlike the vast majority of Black men and women, whose rights are marginalized. The questions I propose to answer are: in what way, despite being a White man, does translating the poetry of Black women produce affects that overcome these oppositions? Despite my own limitations, such a translation experience entails the possibility of a relationship described by monk and activist Thich Nhat Hanh (1991) as interbeing, which suggests the Buddhist concept of sunyata, meaning “emptiness of inherent existence” (CARLUCCI, 2022). All beings, according to Mahayana Buddhist philosophy, are interconnected at a deeper level of (inter)existence in that, between the Self and the Other, despite all differences, they maintain an existential connection in which they affect one another. Here, I purposefully play with the sense of “affect” and “being affected by” to reflect on love, as invited by African American activist, anti-racist, teacher, and artist bell hooks (2000), whose writings on love reverberate the issues I intend to discuss.

Changes in Scholars’ Ways of Knowledge Production Shaped by Systematic Measures

This paper considers the role played by systematic measuring in academic conducts. The introduction of entrepreneurial culture into academia fosters competitive atmospheres through its emphasis on personal merit, which entails quantitative performance measurement. As knowledge production is one of scholars’ core missions, this study aims to articulate impacts on ways of knowledge production influenced by environmental factors, comprising measuring instruments, institutional management, funding bodies and state policy. By interviewing 41 scholars in Taiwan and exploring their accounts of academic practices, this paper empirically analyses how knowledge production has been shaped by policy environments. These modifying behaviour patterns include a selection of research topics, a design for research agenda, strategies for grant applications and publications, engendering delicate changes in the epistemic properties of research. From this, it characterizes power relations between researchers, scientific communities and the state in the neoliberal age.

«В недрах Наркомпроса заявление мое затерялось»: прошения и ходатайства о персональном пенсионном обеспечении В.Г. Успенской — дочери Г.И. Успенского

Based on archival materials, the article considers problems of pensions provision of Vera Uspenskaya (1877—1942) in 1923—1939 whose pension case was registered in the name of her father, the writer Gleb Uspensky. Having analyzed the frequency of changes in the size of Vera Glebovna's personal retirement benefit, the authors found that all the increases in pension amounts were related to personal applications of the pensioner or petitions from her brother, sent to the People's Commissariat of Social Security of the RSFSR through in­ter­mediaries. The world-famous writer Aleksey Gorky, People's Commissar of Education Ana­toly Lunacharsky, leadership of the Union of Soviet Writers and the Literary Fund took part in the solution of her pension problems. Given the documents from the personal pension file of Ve­ra Uspenskaya, one can see that in the legally established three-step procedure for the pre-war establishment and further increase of personal pensions of republican significance (pro­vin­cial (regional) bodies - central bodies - the Commission of the NKSO of the RSFSR), an ins­titution of mediation was built in, based on the principle of personal merit.

Leaving class behind?

AbstractDavid Foster Wallace’s novel The Pale King (2011) presents a social mobility narrative marked by the conflicting support for and challenge against the neoliberal ideology of meritocratic individualism. In the Toni Ware sections of the novel, the portrait of the working class is dominated by a solitary genius protagonist. Toni’s escape from poverty relies on both contingent circumstance and personal merit. Even though Toni subverts the myth of the classless society that grounds the middle‐class ideology of consumer capitalism, the way she does so embodies the rugged individualism that underlies precisely this ideology. Interrogating these ambiguities, this essay argues that Wallace’s social mobility narrative of the Toni Ware sections, while going some way toward resisting meritocracy and individualism, also supports these neoliberal middle‐class ideological discourses by making its upwardly mobile protagonist a solitary genius. Moreover, by showing the adult Toni’s rebellion against the myth of the classless society to be an outsider renegade’s descent into sociopathic villainy, the story affirms her subversion yet problematizes individualistic rebellion.

Equality for Women: The Constituent Assembly Debates and the Making of Equality Jurisprudence by and for Women

This article explores how 15 women members in the nearly all-male constitution-making process contributed to crafting of sex equality in India’s Constitution. Women members, opposed to positive discrimination and having faith in personal merit and ability to overcome odds, asserted their voice in India’s Constituent Assembly to redress women’s subordination caused by socio-religious androcentric practices, customs and laws. But the outcomes depended upon the religio-masculine complex which never permitted the issue of gender inequalities to take centrestage in the constitution-making process. However, for women members, as evident from this enquiry, the mere removal of sex as a constraint upon them was of paramount importance as merit, ability and competence could further help them achieve progress and equalisation. Second, what appears is that in the women's imagination, the guarantee of equality being crafted included an eradication of historical gender inequalities.

The Quiet Service of Maria Alekseevna Neklyudova (1866—1948)

Maria Alekseevna Neklyudova (1866—1948) spent her whole life caring for girls: first, at the Patriotic Institute, then at the Smolny Institute for Noble Ladies, as well as the Odessa Women‘s Institute named after Emperor Nicholas I and finally at the Kharkiv Women‘s Institute, which she took out into exile and which she directed until its closure in 1932. Later she took care of the girls of the student dormitory in Belgrade, during the Second World War it gave shelter to yonger girls. Neklyudova took these girls from Serbia to Austria, however this step did not save them from repatriation to the Soviet Union. But even in exile in the village of Kuzkino of the Kuibyshev (Samara) region, she continued to take care of children, now looking after the children of a peasant in whose house she found shelter and where she lived until her death in 1948. Thus, she devoted her entire adult life to serving children and did not leave this work, in spite of all the difficulties. Neklyudova may not have been perfect, but she did her best to protect her maidens from the hardships and adversities of the reality surrounding them. In this paper, on the basis of the archival data, some milestones of Maria Alekseevna's life path, unknown in modern historiography, are restored. The materials of the periodical press and the memoirs of contemporaries help to understand what guided this woman in her sacrifice and indifference to other people's fate. The author tries to answer whether such a choice was her personal merit or was predetermined by the upbringing that she herself received within the walls of women's educational institutions for hereditary nobles in the Russian Empire.

Ficciones del origen y orígenes de la ficción en la obra de Juan José Nieto

This essay approaches the ways in which Afro-Colombian intellectual, president and novelist, Juan José Nieto (1805–1866), represents Colombia as a new republic where education and personal merit, in contrast to lineage, are the sole purveyors of legitimacy to govern and write. In literary self-representations, Nieto erased his origins as a person of diverse racial origins and instead decided to represent himself as a “new republican notability” who made it to power through hard work. The present essay argues that Nieto, as the first writer of historical novels in Colombia, in his novel Ingermina o la hija de Calamar (1844), plots a new origin for the Republic – one akin to himself, mixed race, based on education and with popular support. As a new letrado in the midst of Romantic euphoria in the continent, Nieto would participate in debates about the origins of national literature for the new nations. As an outsider attacked because of his nonwhite origins, Nieto would contradictorily erase his own history and use the figure of French Romantic Alexandre Dumas, a novelist with Afro-Caribbean origins like himself, to legitimize his own public persona as a self-taught man and defender of republicanism. The essay concludes by suggesting that despite Nieto’s strategies to found a Republic that would erase racial origins as providing legitimacy to occupy positions of power, he was erased from literary and political Colombian history for over 150 years precisely because his antagonists could not accept a nation, and a national literature, without origins in Europe.

Urban high school students’ perceptions of race, gender, and benefits from participating in a STEMM pipeline programme: a sociocultural case study

ABSTRACT Motivated by lack of diversity in Science Technology Engineering Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM) professions, this case-study explores a group of 25 high achieving, low SES, mostly female, majority-minority high school students’ perception of race, ethnicity, and gender as factors for success in their future as STEMM professionals. Additionally, the study elucidates the benefits of participating in a pipeline programme designed to promote high skill and high wage jobs in the medical and health fields. Emergent themes of race and merit prominently surfaced. Responses to the effect of race and gender varied by subgroup, with the themes of the ‘power of personal merit’ over sociocultural factors emerging as the most striking theme. Participants’ perceived benefits aligned with the programme goals: broadening of STEM knowledge, access to role-models, and hands-on experience. Teachings on social inequality and more access to female, minority role-models are suggested to prepare participants for their entrance into the STEMM field.

Involvement of Women in Economy: An Explication from the Islamic Perspective

Islam provides prescriptions on the specific rights and obligations of men and women in the society. While women in the West still fight for their rights to an equal position until today, Islam provides Muslim women with the rights to be involved in economic activities based on their personal merit and wisdom. This paper aims to highlight the involvement of Muslim women in economic activities from an Islamic perspective. Islam does not limit the task of women to being mothers; Muslim women can involve themselves in other fields such as economics and politics, as long as they adhere to the guidelines put forward by the religion. It cannot be denied that their involvement in the economic sector became one of the development factors of Islamic civilisation since the very beginning of Islam until now. The purpose of their voluntary involvement in the economy was to contribute their skills and expertise as well as to apply their knowledge for the benefit and maslahah of the Muslim society and ummah. The study concludes that out that the involvement of Muslim women in economic activities plays an important role in a country’s development process, particularly when the women’s labour were in a compatible manner within the limits of shariah.

I ain't no fortunate one: On the motivated denial of class privilege.

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 119(6) of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (see record 2021-01144-001). In the article, in the Independent variables subsection of Experiment 6, the second paragraph is duplicated here in error. The correct location appears as the fourth paragraph of this subsection. All versions of this article have been corrected.] Invisibility makes privilege powerful. Especially when it remains unexposed, privilege perpetuates inequity by giving unearned advantages to certain groups over others. However, recent social movements (e.g., Occupy) attempt to expose class-based privilege, threatening its invisibility. Across 8 experiments, we show that beneficiaries of class privilege respond to such exposure by increasing their claims of personal hardships and hard work, to cover privilege in a veneer of meritocracy. Experiments 1a-c show that when people are provided evidence of their own class privilege, they claim to have suffered more personal life hardships. Experiment 2 suggests that these claims are driven in part by threats to self-regard. Experiment 3 finds that such self-defense is motivated specifically by a desire to attribute positive outcomes to the self (i.e., sense of personal merit). When given the chance to first bolster their sense of personal merit, those benefitting from privilege no longer claim hardships in response to evidence of privilege. Experiments 4 and 5 further suggest self-concerns are at play: only self-relevant privilege evokes defensive responses, and self-affirmation reduces hardship claims more than does system-affirmation. Finally, Experiment 6 suggests that people claim hardships because they believe these imply personal merit on their part. Preventing the privileged from claiming hardship leads them to claim increased effort in the workplace and to increase effort on a difficult task. Overall, results suggest that even when those benefitting from class privileges are confronted with evidence of their "invisible knapsack," ideologies of personal merit help them cover the privileges of class once again. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

"I ain't no fortunate one: On the motivated denial of class privilege": Correction to Phillips and Lowery (2020).

Reports an error in "I ain't no fortunate one: On the motivated denial of class privilege" by L. Taylor Phillips and Brian S. Lowery (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Advanced Online Publication, Jun 18, 2020, np). In the article, in the Independent variables subsection of Experiment 6, the second paragraph is duplicated here in error. The correct location appears as the fourth paragraph of this subsection. All versions of this article have been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2020-43040-001.) Invisibility makes privilege powerful. Especially when it remains unexposed, privilege perpetuates inequity by giving unearned advantages to certain groups over others. However, recent social movements (e.g., Occupy) attempt to expose class-based privilege, threatening its invisibility. Across 8 experiments, we show that beneficiaries of class privilege respond to such exposure by increasing their claims of personal hardships and hard work, to cover privilege in a veneer of meritocracy. Experiments 1a-c show that when people are provided evidence of their own class privilege, they claim to have suffered more personal life hardships. Experiment 2 suggests that these claims are driven in part by threats to self-regard. Experiment 3 finds that such self-defense is motivated specifically by a desire to attribute positive outcomes to the self (i.e., sense of personal merit). When given the chance to first bolster their sense of personal merit, those benefitting from privilege no longer claim hardships in response to evidence of privilege. Experiments 4 and 5 further suggest self-concerns are at play: only self-relevant privilege evokes defensive responses, and self-affirmation reduces hardship claims more than does system-affirmation. Finally, Experiment 6 suggests that people claim hardships because they believe these imply personal merit on their part. Preventing the privileged from claiming hardship leads them to claim increased effort in the workplace and to increase effort on a difficult task. Overall, results suggest that even when those benefitting from class privileges are confronted with evidence of their "invisible knapsack," ideologies of personal merit help them cover the privileges of class once again. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

On Princes and Carpenters Boxing in Homer

ABSTRACT This article examines the role of sport as mediator between social class and personal merit through the figure of Epeios in Homer’s Iliad. Dated around 800 BCE, the poem provides us with the first complete account of an athletic event in Western literature, the Funeral Games for Patroklos (henceforth: the Games). Among the noble warlords competing at the Games is a soldier of obscure background called Epeios who wins in boxing but loses in weight-throwing. His performance initiates a novel discourse on the philosophy of sport, as his athletic prowess is not concomitant with martial distinction. Introduced into the Iliad through sport and not war, Epeios later achieves renown as the carpenter who built the Trojan Horse. Through close readings of all relevant texts, this paper argues that Epeios’ mini-epic articulates the Problematik of sport as a criterion for meritocracy by reevaluating the social gap between him and his aristocratic fellow-contestants. At the same time, this analysis explicates how the figure of Epeios foreshadows the change in strategy that will bring forth the fall of Troy.

Dynasticity in the Second Bulgarian Tsardom and its Manifestations in Medieval History Writing

Analyzing various medieval Bulgarian hagiographical texts, inscriptions and marginal notes, as well as the Synodicon of the Bulgarian church and other evidence, the author aims to reveal the dynastic concepts of the second Bulgarian Tsardom (1186–1396) and literary attempts to create and support a complex dynastic idea with the means of medieval Bulgarian history writing. Such attempts were connected with two core ideas. Firstly, the state’s foundation was represented as a personal merit of two Asens – father and son. Asen “the Old” adopting the throne name John marked the beginning of the Asens’ Tsardom liberating the Bulgarians from “the Greek slavery” and transferring to his stronghold Tărnovo from Sredets – the center of the Byzantine power over Bulgaria – the relics of St. John of Rila. John Asen “the Great”, his son, strengthened the Tsardom with his victories, returned the status of Patriarchy to the Bulgarian church and brought the relics of St. Parasceve to the capital Tărnovo. Secondly, the literary tradition shaped the image of the Bulgarian Tsardom as an ever-lasting Empire whose enduring attributes – Sceptre and Throne – were given by God to change the mortal monarchs.

Experienced Discrimination and Volunteering among the Second Baby Boom Generation - The Mediating Roles of Perceived Equal Opportunity and Achievement by Personal Merit

Experienced Discrimination and Volunteering among the Second Baby Boom Generation - The Mediating Roles of Perceived Equal Opportunity and Achievement by Personal Merit

Merit is not for everyone: the perception of black managers about their process of career mobility

Abstract Based on research conducted in Belo Horizonte, with 25 black managers, this article analyzes how the career mobility discourse is based on the idea of personal merit. Considering this central problem and authors such as Pierre Bourdieu, Jessé Souza and Carlos Hasenbalg, the research analyzed the assumptions, functionalities and productive character that the idea of personal merit assumes in the interviewees' discourse. The results obtained point to a perception of the process of moving up in the organization career path that has strong meritocratic components; a perception that ignores or minimizes the social, emotional, moral and economic preconditions that interfere in the differential performance obtained by individuals. Moreover, this perception implies a disqualification of any argument that reinforces the racial barriers in their upward career mobility processes, which contributes to conceal the political, economic and social dimension of racism in the country.

Personal Merit and The Politics of Gratitude

Most philosophers recognize that sometimes particular individuals have to be grateful to others who have benefited them in a way that provides reasons for treating them in a differential way. In the same way, I argue, there are cases in which society as such benefits from the actions of a person, which gives rise to collective duties of gratitude that must be expressed at the political and socio-economical levels. The political concern about merit should not merely instrumental, but also moral: a society cannot be just if it disregards its collective duties of gratitude. I criticize Rawls’ famous Natural Lottery argument showing that it relies on a problematic understanding of the notion of moral responsibility and develop some consideration on the role that gratitude should play when designing both public institutions and policies.