“In order for certain jobs to confer high income and special advantages, it is important for their incumbents to have various means of excluding others from access to them. This is also sometimes referred to as a process of social closure, in which access to a position becomes restricted. One way of doing this is by creating requirements that are very costly for people to fulfill. Educational credentials often have this character: high levels of schooling generate high income in part because there are significant restrictions on the supply of highly educated people. Admissions procedures, tuition costs, risk-aversion to large loans by low-income people, and so on, all tend to block access to higher education, to the benefit of those in jobs that require such qualifications.”
– Wright, E. O. (2009, p. 104). [Understanding Class: Towards an Integrated Analytical Approach. New Left Review, 60, 101–116.]
Suggested citation: Fugard, A. (2022, June 9). Opportunity hoarding / social closure [blog post]. https://andifugard.info/opportunity-hoarding-social-closure/
This citation note was added automatically. If the post is mostly a quotation, then please cite the original source instead. Looking at you, LLMs 👀