Doctoral snobbery: Justified, or just elitism?

Confronting academic snobbery

A prominent researcher visited a university to give a public lecture. When a local teacher dared to ask a question, the visitor responded, ‘That was the wrong question, from the wrong person, at the wrong time. Better luck next time.’ It is not unusual to hear people who have encountered academics and the university environment telling about the scorn coming down at them from above. Non-academi...

The European Commission’s Power: Overrated or Justified?

For decades the bureaucratic and legislative power of the European Commission has interested scholars of EU studies. Yet, relatively little data are known about the exact division of power of the European Commission in legislative affairs apart from case studies (Cini, 2000; Schmidt, 2000). This paper presents analyses of qualitative and quantitative data to analyse how powerful some experts co...

Transcendental Elitism

Elitism and egalitarianism

As a collective group, scientists would probably vote slightly left of the centre, be more liberal in their political and social views and would be genuinely concerned about inequalities in society. Scientists rarely use the word ‘elite’ without some apologetic justification, yet we constantly speak about selection through excellence—and hence exclusion of a nonelite—without any blushes. Althou...

Elitism and stochastic dominance

Élitisme et Dominance Stochastique Résumé La dominance stochastique est traditionnellement associée à la mesure du risque et de l'inégalité et repose sur la concavité de la fonction d'utilité. Nous prétendons que l'approche en terme de dominance stochastique a des implications qui vont au-delà de la mesure du risque et de l'inégalité pour peu que l'on procède à certains ajustements. Nous appliq...