What Is A Meritocracy?

The social work profession emerged in the early nineteenth century as charitable organizations began employing trained workers rather than relying on volunteers. This was a century when disease, laziness, poverty and others were exposed as social evils that needed to be addressed. The movement to stamp out these social evils began with philanthropist women, joined later by charitable organizations and subsequently by the state or government itself (Gorsky, 1999).
The philanthropic women who began the movement operated by passing on an ideology which mainly sought to help people by remoralizing them. This meant that those in need of help had to sign a temperance pledge which was based on the religious beliefs of the day. It was this process
By this, they suggest that there should be a social system in which people’s success in life depends primarily on their own abilities and effort. The proposal of a meritocracy has served as an ideology through the dissimilarity that social inequality results from imbalanced advantage rather than prejudice or discrimination (Mcnamee and Miller, 2004). In contrast to the three viewpoints enumerated so far, there is also a post-modernist position which questions the existence of a concept of inequality. As Scheurich, (1997) explained, those in favour of this view reject the use of empirical research to establish objective reality. They believe that this can be done by the independent observer; as such, the postmodernist ethos suggests that the individual’s view of reality is equally valid (Murphy and Pardeck,
(2007). Family Life and Youth Offending:Home is where is Hurt is . Oxon: Routledge.
Barclay, P. (1982). Social Workers:Their Role and Task (the Barclay Report). London: Bedford Square Press.
Dickens, J. (2013). Social Work Law and Ethics. New York: Routledge.
Dunning, J. (2011, May 25). Bureaucracy is damaging personalisation,Social Workers Say. Retrieved 04 26, 2013, from www.communitycare.com
Gorsky, M. (1999). Patterns of Philanthropy:Charity and Society in nineteenth century Bristol. london: Boydell Press.
Hugman, R. (2003). Professional Valves and Ethics in Social Work: Reconsidering Postmodernism. British Journal of Social Work , 1025-1041.
Mcnamee, J., & Miller, K. (2004). The Meritocracy Myth. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
Meinert, G. R., Pardeck, T., & Murphy, W. (1998). Postmodernism Religion and the Future of Social Work. New York: Haworth Press.
Munro, E. (2011). Department for Education.The Munro Review of Child Proctection:Final Report - Child Centred Report. London: The Stationery Office Limited.
Noel, T. (1971). Social Casework:Principle and Practice. Old Woking: The Gresham Press.
Rogers, A. J. (2008). Voice from the Voluntary Sector:A comparative study of the impact of Government funding within the Voluntary Sector. Proquest