2. Graduate Income Inequalities: A Qualified Desert Responsibility Analysis
25 Pages
Open Access
Journal:
PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Volume 5
Issue 2
Publication Year 2023
pp. 357 - 381
Summary
This article proposes a ‘qualified desert responsibility’ framework to analyse social class-based differentials in graduate incomes in the UK. I posit that unequal outcomes can only be justified on desert grounds by virtue of actions or qualities for which individuals may reasonably be held responsible. I then review a range of sociological studies of graduate employment from which I conclude that disparities between middle-class and working-class graduates cannot be justified by reference to a desert principle because they are the product of an unequally structured labour market for which individuals cannot reasonably be held responsible. In the discussion, I develop this argument by drawing upon Fishkin’s theory of ‘opportunity pluralism’. I conclude with a brief account of sociological investigations of intra-class graduate employment experiences. Here, I suggest that unequal outcomes can be justified by reference to the desert principle where there is evidence that the responsibility condition has been met.
Details
- Pages
- 25
- DOI
- 10.3726/PTIHE.022023.0357
- Open Access
- CC-BY
- Keywords
- graduate incomes inequality desert-based justice opportunity pluralism
- Product Safety
- Peter Lang Group AG