THE THEORETICAL MODEL OF ENGLISH MERITOCRATIC DISCOURSE

This paper presents a reflection on the process of doing critical meritocratic discourse research. Examples from a current project on the discursive construction of ‘meritocrat’ identity are used to illustrate how major challenges inherent in undertaking meritocratic discourse research can be addressed. These involved initial justifications of discourse theory as a research framework, research design and data collection in order to contribute to broader debates about age, gender and social status. Much of the existing research on meritocracy and meritocrats has focused on the content of age-based stereotypes, their cultural meaning and the outcomes or material effects of the marginalisation of meritocrats in the labour market. Yet no research had explicitly addressed the issue of the processes of identity construction and this was the potential contribution of discourse theory: coupled with a critical orientation it would permit an exploration of the processes of constructing social identity and its political implications in relation to the labour market