This article is eclectic in its reach and on occasions polemical in its discussion and assumptions; it is written as a study of economic, social and citizenship socialisation. The article's origins are fairly atypical; it does not situate its arguments in the analysis of empirical data, qualitative or quantitative. Based upon a critique of the concept of meritocracy contained in Michael Young's (1958) satirical novel, The Rise of the Meritocracy, 1870–2033: an essay on education and equality, it attempts to remind us of some core principles that ought to govern our view of the aims of education and schooling in their cultural and socio-economic guises and in the manner in which they can contribute to the project of civic renewal in pursuit of a society that is truly equitable, socially just, democratic and meritorious.
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